Renewables land £18m cash float

A NEW £18 MILLION cash pot is up for grabs to turn prototype sea energy turbines into commercial power generators and help fulfil the Scottish government’s ambitions to establish the country as “the Saudi arabia of marine energy”.

The new fund, announced yesterday by First Minister Alex Salmond during the All Energy exhibition and conference held in Aberdeen, is being targeted at commercial scale wave and tidal power arrays to produce electricity from the power of the sea.

“Europe’s greatest wind, wave and tidal resources are heavily concentrated in the waters around these islands and Scotland is at the forefront of developing offshore and low carbon energy generation technologies,” said Mr Salmond.

“The new fund brings together the marine renewables expertise of the Carbon Trust, the Scottish government and our enterprise agencies.

“It will help move the wave and tidal sector from prototype devices to commercially viable arrays, producing increasing amounts of electricity solely from the power of the seas and deliver a lasting legacy for future generations.”

The new Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund, is now seeking bids and will be open for funding applications for two months.

The majority of bids are expected to come from high-profile projects planned for the waters off Orkney and the Pentland Firth with the government expecting to announce funding awards before the end of the year.

Mr Salmond also confirmed that the government had awarded the first £500,000 from its £70m National Renewables Infrastructure Fund to support the development of a new renewable energy hub on the River Cart near Glasgow.

Wb westway, a joint partnership between real estate investors Moorfield Group from London and New York-based Westbrook Partners, won the first award from the fund to transform the 53-hectare Renfrewshire industrial site.

“This initial funding award will help Westway to transform the site, to win new tenants, as well as new orders for existing tenants, which include Steel Engineering – an exciting, dynamic Scottish company that is increasingly expanding its renewables business,” said Salmond.

“Further awards are expected later this year to support additional investment in key port locations around Scotland – ensuring communities across the country are ideally placed to seize the huge opportunities of the global renewables revolution.”