The three Pelamis Wave Power Ltd (PWP) projects successfully awarded lease options from The Crown Estate in the UK's first marine energy leasing round include:

• A 50MW offshore wave project with E.ON UK, off the west coast of the Orkney Islands, and

•   A 50MW offshore wave project with Scottish Power Renewables, also off the west coast of the Orkney Islands, and

•    A third 50MW wave farm site off the north coast of (above) Sutherland being developed by PWP themselves.

Commenting on the three projects, with a cumulative capacity of 150MW, CEO of PWP (right) Neels Kriek, said: "The Crown Estate's process has set our industry on course towards delivering marine projects of utility scale, and PWP is delighted that both Scottish Power Renewables and E.ON UK endorsed our technology in their applications. We are proudly and uniquely aligned in our respective goals of delivering renewable energy through multiple commercial Pelamis projects in the next 5 to 10 years."

PWP is in the final stages of building the first Pelamis P2 machine for E.ON at their manufacturing facility in Leith Docks.  The machine is due to be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney this summer to start grid connected demonstration trials.

Lord Moynihan, () chairman of PWP welcomed the First Minister's announcement saying: "This marks a huge achievement for our sector, and we see it as a defining opportunity to build on our achievements to date.  

"Politicians in Edinburgh and London have made real commitments to the wave and tidal sectors and the delivery of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Round will see this commitment come to fruition."

Crown estates has double the pleasure
"I am delighted to announce that Pelamis Wave Power has been awarded the Armadale site to develop 50MW of wave energy power in Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters, the world's first commercial wave and tidal leasing round," said Roger Bright (right) CB, CEO of The Crown Estate.

He added, "The 1.2GW of installed capacity proposed by the wave and tidal energy developers for 2020 shows the world that marine energy can produce meaningful amounts of electricity and offers a real alternative to conventional power production."

He was "Also delighted to announce that Aquamarine Power and SSE Renewables have been awarded the Brough Head site to develop 200 MW of wave power in Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters, the world’s first commercial wave and tidal leasing round.

"The 1.2GW of installed capacity proposed by the wave and tidal energy developers for 2020 shows the world that marine energy can produce meaningful amounts of electricity and offers a real alternative to conventional power production. The long term prospects for this growing industry are exceptionally bright, with vast amounts of untapped energy in the seas all around the UK. It will create new businesses and jobs as well as attracting inward investment,” he concluded.

Brough head wave farm
A joint venture partnership between Aquamarine Power and SSE Renewables is granted exclusive development rights to an area of the seabed off the coast of Orkney at Brough Head, Eday as part of the world’s first commercial leasing programme for wave and tidal energy generation projects.
 
The partnership has been granted an agreement for a lease to develop the first commercial 200MW farm of Aquamarine Power’s Oyster hydro-electric wave power devices in 2013.

The partnership will work closely with The Crown Estate, Orkney Islands Council and other key stakeholders to obtain necessary consents for the phased deployment of the farm and to ensure the project is developed sensitively and with due consideration to the local environment and community.

The development area has the potential to see Oyster devices deployed in small clusters spaced over a stretch of coastline off mainland Orkney running from Costa Head in the north to Neban Point in the south-west.  The proposed wave farm would have an installed capacity of 200MW and could provide enough energy to power around 190,000 homes.

The Crown Estate as part of its Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters leasing round, attracted over 40 bids for seabed leases from 20 marine energy developers and utilities.

The partnership between Aquamarine Power and SSE Renewables is part of an agreement between the two companies to develop up to 1GW of Oyster wave farm sites in the UK and Ireland by 2020 – the largest commercial agreement in the wave energy sector to date.

“Deploying Oyster on a commercial scale has the potential to generate millions of pounds for the Scottish and UK economy and to create hundreds of jobs on a local and national level said Martin McAdam, CEO (right) of Aquamarine Power:

“Aquamarine Power and SSE Renewables will continue to work in close consultation with the local community and key stakeholders to ensure the sustainable and responsible development of our proposed Oyster project.”
 
Stephen Wheeler, director of SSE Renewables, said:  

“We believe our partnership with Aquamarine Power will not only deliver a significant contribution to the renewable energy mix but also enhance Scotland and the UK’s position as world leaders in marine energy. ”