European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has welcomed the news from Sustainable Marine Energy (SME), which arranged a £4.5m funding package to deploy a PLAT-O tidal energy array at the EMEC site and moved its operational base to Orkney.
The funding has been secured after SCHOTTEL Hydro and Scottish Enterprise decided to join the existing investors in the PLAT-O project.
“EMEC is very much looking forward to seeing SME get into the water at EMEC’s tidal site. It is fantastic to see the support of Scottish Enterprise, showing how investments can be made to bring about renewables projects like this at an important stage in their development,” said Neil Kermode , Managing Director of EMEC.
“We expect this first phase of grid-connected demonstration in Orkney will generate a great deal more learning to add to previous real-sea experience at the Isle of Wight, and provide a solid base on which to build out with SCHOTTEL HYDRO. The Orkney supply chain is poised and ready to help make that a success.”
SME will connect its first system to the grid over the coming months.