Marine

Scottish Renewables Marine Conference, 16-17 Sept 2013

December 3, 2013 by Andronikos Kafas No Comments | Category Marine Directorate Science, Marine Renewables

© Scottish Renewables

Staff from MSS and LOT attended the Scottish Renewables Wave and Tidal conference in Inverness on the 16^th and 17^th of September. This is a condensed conference with 24 hours of exhibits, meetings, technology updates and state of the industry revelations squeezed across two days. This year there were 34 stands and 350 attendees, so, plenty of opportunities to find out the latest on-goings in the world of wave and tidal technologies.

The opening plenary session consisted of a prestigious panel including Fergus Ewing MSP (Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism), Niall Stuart (Chief Executive, Scottish Renewables), and Alex Paterson (Chief Executive, Highlands and Islands Enterprise). These introductory addresses were followed by a Saltire Prize lecture on the current state of play of wave and tidal energy by Professor Peter Fraenkel MBE which set the tone for the conference to come.

It is customary to make important announcements at these events and there were some good ones this year. The Energy Minister announced at his Ministerial address to the conference:

• Meygen Limited has been awarded consent for an 86 megawatt tidal stream array situated in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth.
• Two of Scotland’s leading wave energy companies, Pelamis Wave Power and Aquamarine Power have been awarded as part of the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (Wave First Array Support Programme)
• The Renewable Energy Investment Fund is getting extended by a year. The scheme will consider investments until March 2016.
• The Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) has funded two reports to help local communities identify and assess the opportunities that will come as the wave & tidal sector develops., published on the day of the conference by the community owned Islay Energy Trust.

Parallel sessions dealing with the main aspects that concern the industry such as grid connection, investment and manufacturing took place throughout the two days. Phil Gilmour (head of MS Marine Renewables and Offshore Wind Energy Branch) took part in a number of these sessions and informed attendees of the various national and sectoral plans and what we are doing to streamline licensing process for all offshore developers.

MS plays a part in maintaining the impetus that may create a whole new industry of marine energy with our streamlined licencing and consenting as well as our national and sectoral planning schemes. We were reminded of how this is appreciated and indeed essential to a smooth and efficient processing of offshore development consents when Calum Davidson, director of Energy and Low Carbon for Highlands and Islands Enterprise urged attendees to raise a glass to Marine Scotland and offer thanks for the part we play in keeping this new industry’s momentum going whilst safeguarding Scotland’s precious natural resources and existing marine industries.

Another event highlight was the projects and technologies speed update which describes, in five minute bursts per talker, the progress/setbacks/lessons learned in the last 12 months. A lot has happened and a lot of it was encouraging. Presentations from this session and all others are available from the Scottish Renewable website, link provided at end of article.

Interest in all of MS’s recent activities was high and during the networking breaks there was a great amount of activity answering questions on marine spatial planning, licensing consent and survey work in support of renewables and MPA proposals.

As usual at these events the MS graphics section had provided an impressively detailed and eye-catching display. This, together with the Marine Scotland interactive screen images and a prime stand location by the main entrance meant that nobody walked by Marine Scotland’s stand without being drawn in.

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