The marine and tidal energy sector in Scotland is being offered ￡6 million to push out new wave and tidal power devices, on top of a ￡50 million R&D fund for all offshore energy.
The ￡6 million is from Scottish Enterprise, which is launching a second round of funding from its WATERS ￡13 million fund to help reduce the cost of bringing wave and tidal technologies to commercial application.
First Minister Alex Salmond said the programme will continue to work with “enterprise agencies, SDI and the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney" to "help generate ￡4 billion for Scotland’s economy by 2020".
The fund will be open to businesses that are legal entities registered or planning to register in Scotland, including Scottish subsidiaries of overseas companies.
Leading developers Aquamarine Power (with its Oyster wave power device), Open Hydro (tidal current devices), AWS Ocean Energy (which has a doughnut-shaped wave energy converter in Loch Ness and the Cromarty Firth) and Ocean Flow Energy (another marine energy device) have already benefited from funding in a previous round.
Today's news follows last Friday's announcement from the UK Technology Strategy Board that it will base its ‘Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’ innovation centre for offshore renewables (wind, wave and tidal) in Glasgow’s International Technology & Renewable Energy Zone (ITREZ).
This is a UK-wide consortium comprising the Carbon Trust, National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec), and Ocean Energy Innovation. It will receive up to ￡10m per annum over five years (￡50 million) from the Technology Strategy Board.
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