Scottish Government Announces 10 Wave and Tide Power Schemes

The Crown estate and Scottish government have just recently announced 10 wave and tide power installations in the sea near Orkney Islands and Pentland Firth. This is one of the first fully fledged schemes to harness the UK’s immense potential for nonpolluting wave and tidal power. It is promised that this scheme will have as much output as a nuclear power station.

According to reports, these 10 wave and tide power schemes will be able to generate close to 1.2 GW of total energy. The crown estate said that these would be the world’s first commercial wave and tidal projects and that the 10 schemes would generate enough electricity to power over 750,000 homes by 2020.

The first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, said that the announcement confirmed his prediction that the area, where the Atlantic meets the North Sea, will become the Saudi Arabia of marine energy because of the region’s powerful currents and tidal surges. These tidal machines are expected to cost £4 billion to install and will require up to £1 billion of extra investment from public sources. This money will be used to build new grid connections, harbors, warehousing and facilities in Orkney and Caithness.

These 10 schemes are being developed by three major power firms, Scottish and Southern Energy Renewables, Scottish Power Renewables, and E.ON. However, these three will also be working in a joint venture with four of the UK’s leading marine energy firms.

Despite all of this help, some of the energy companies think that even more investments will be made for these schemes to reach their full potential. Only time will tell if this scheme will be all it’s cracked up to be.