Pelamis Wave Power is testing its device at EMEC in the Orkneys, but is also to deploy the device in Portugal
Scotland
is in danger of losing the "race" to establish a multi-billion pound
marine renewable energy manufacturing industry, if the national grid is
not developed to support new wave and tidal projects.
Speaking to New Energy Focus
last week, the Edinburgh government's inward investment agency,
Scottish Development International, warned that Spain and Portugal
could soon be in a stronger position than Scotland to claim thousands
of new manufacturing jobs as a result.
With electricity grids
running along their coasts, he said they could tempt companies to base
their production facilities there unless Scotland can dramatically
strengthen its national grid to service new renewable projects.
Paul
O'Brien, senior executive for renewable energy at SDI, said Spain and
Portugal are now "lining up" new wave device test sites, with companies
like Pelamis Wave Power due to test wave devices there.
He said
the battle now was to become the home of manufacturing for marine
energy - the way that Denmark and Germany have become the manufacturing
home for many of the wind turbines now being installed in Britain.
"We
still have the opportunity to win that race, but if we go to sleep or
we don't sort out the grid, we will lose the race," Mr O'Brien warned.
"Our
companies will be selling their technology, but they will be building
in Spain or Portugal. Scotland has a large tidal resource on our
doorstep - we should get the manufacturing companies to make use of it."
The
Scottish Government is already supporting the development of marine
energy technology through projects like the EMEC testing facility on
the Orkney islands.
However, Mr O'Brien said that with the
national electricity networks designed to provide fossil fuel power,
major grid development projects will be needed to guarantee that
developers attracted by EMEC and similar test facilities are encouraged
to establish manufacturing bases in Scotland.
Beauly-Denny
He
said the proposed Beauly-Denny Line upgrade, which has been held in
planning turmoil for three years and is awaiting a decision expected
later this year, will be one of the most important developments.
The
220km high-voltage circuit is proposed by Scottish and Southern Energy
to link up more than 2.3GW of new renewable energy capacity along power
lines from Denny, west of Falkirk, up to Beauly, west of Inverness.
"We need the Beauly-Denny Line," Mr O'Brien said. "It could set us back quite a way if that doesn't happen."
The development of offshore grids will also be very important - but would require many billions of investment.
A
feasibility exercise is underway to look into a Scottish-Irish offshore
grid west of Scotland, while Mr O'Brien said Scotland is looking to
partnerships with other European countries with an eye to a possible
European "supergrid".
With grid reinforcements made, the Scottish
Government believes it can attract the kind of large-scale wave and
tidal stream arrays that could tempt developers to set up their
production factories in Scotland.
Although he said Scotland
could not rival the plans of Korea or Taiwan to develop massive
production facilities, it could be the manufacturing hub for Europe.
But he warned: "If Spain and Portugal get their act together and come
out with a tender for 300-400MW of wave power, they could get the whole
industry in the next 10 years.
"What we want is to be the winners
for wave and tidal in the same way that Denmark and Germany were the
winners for wind," he said.
