£300,000
Grant for First Centre to Test Potential of Waves
The funding for the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney will allow the centre to establish the first quality control standards, setting the benchmark for the entire industry, and further establish it as a worldwide centre of excellence.
The First Minister said: "I want to see Scotland lead the world in renewable energy. We may be a small country, but our renewable energy potential is massive. Scotland has both the natural resources and the talent to make that happen. In the Highlands and Islands alone, we have enormous wind, wave, tidal and biomass resources. I am determined to see Scotland exploit this huge potential."
However the Scottish Greens attacked the money as a "drop in the ocean" and said it is a tiny fraction of the ammount of support needed to get the marine energy properly off the ground in Scotland.
They said Scottish marine energy companies such as Ocean Power Delivery are having to go to Portugal and South Africa to get government support to develop commercial-scale projects. There is no commercial scheme yet under way in Scotland.
Eleanor Scott MSP, the Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands said: "We need a lot more than small ammounts of money and much more urgently.
"There's always the risk that good Scottish ideas will end up being manufactured abroad and we miss out on the jobs potential. What is the first Minister going to doto ensure this does not happen?"
Meanwhile, two new research programmes at the UHI Millennium Institute, the organisation bidding to become a university of the Highlands & Islands by 2007, will help the renewables drive in the region.
Funded by the European Social Fund and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the programmes will support research opportunities in renewable energy for over 20 graduates.
They will seek to develop local skills in generating electricity from wave, tidal, wind, solar, biomass and waste energy sources. Both are being co-ordinated by the North Highland College from its Environmental Research Institute in Thurso.
Richard Hunt, the project co-ordinator, said : "Politicians and scientists recognise that the Highlands and Islands hold the key to Scotland meeting its target of generating 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020"
Copyright
© 2001 The North Highland College All rights reserved
