EMEC expands operation to Islay and Harris

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has been awarded rights to new areas of seabed by the Crown Estate, including a tidal stream project in the Stronsay Firth.

EMEC already operates two wave test sites and two tidal test sites in Orkney, and is to begin consultation on how best to develop new marine energy development zones having also been awarded rights to manage two further seabed zones in Harris and Islay.

The new Orkney demonstration site in the Stronsay Firth is just south-east of EMEC’s existing tidal test site, and will offer additional testing facilities for tidal energy devices, components, subsystems, arrays and array enabling technology.

EMEC, in collaboration with local partners, has also been awarded rights to areas of seabed in Harris and Islay, which will be developed to complement its existing test sites by providing developers with a different set of marine characteristics, and may be used for single device testing and/or small array testing, with overall site limits of up to 100MW.