UK pushes for 10 wave and tidal projects

Wed Mar 17 2010, 10:59 AM

The UK's Crown Estate is leasing portions of the seabed for wave and tidal projects at 10 sites in Scotland's Pentland Firth and Orkney waters. Developers will now enter a consenting process for the proposed projects, which have a combined capacity of 1.2GW, equally split between wave and tidal farms. The projects are expected to cost GBP5bn (USD7.6bn) to develop, including up to GBP1bn (USD1.5bn) in public funding to support construction of electricity transmission infrastructure.

The Crown Estate signed lease agreements with SSE Renewables Developments, Aquamarine Power, ScottishPower Renewables, E.ON, Pelamis Wave Power, OpenHydro and Marine Current Turbines.

"Today marks a major milestone in the global journey towards a low carbon future, with the commercial-scale deployment of marine renewables set to power our economies and help safeguard the planet for generations to come" says Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond.

"These waters have been described as the Saudi Arabia of marine power and the wave and tidal projects unveiled today - exceeding the initial 700MW target capacity - underline the rich natural resources of the waters off Scotland."