Scots help post-quake Japan exploit power of the oceans
COVER STORY
Scotland makes many wave- and tidal-energy systems.
Making Waves in Tidal Energy
Scots help post-quake Japan exploit power of the oceans
By Julian Ryall
• North of border tops world in wave energy
• Tokyo asks Edinburgh for technology help
• Scots trade mission targets Japan this year
• Strong support from UK, Scots govts
In a series of sea lochs and inlets on the western coast of Orkney, northern Scotland, there is movement in the water.
Contrasting sharply with the grey of the Atlantic, a series of five red and yellow tubular sections move in the ocean’ s constant swell. Each time the connected sections rise or sink with a wave, the energy of the breaker is transformed into electricity.
The brainchild of Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power Ltd., the ingenious device is just one of the wave and tidal energy systems that are being tested in the waters around the Orkneys, under the aegis of the European Marine Energy Centre( EMEC).
Since it was first set up in 2003, EMEC has developed such a reputation that the Japanese government is planning to use it as a blueprint for its own marine energy research facility.
In March 2012, the centre signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ocean Energy Association of Japan to provide advice and support regarding the design, setting up and operation of the Japanese facility. It has attracted new enthusiasm in the aftermath of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011.
No final decision has been reached on where the Japanese version of EMEC will be constructed, although the shortlist includes Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture— among the areas hardest hit by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Another region that might host the research facility is Nagasaki Prefecture.
Announcing the deal, Scotland’ s Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth John Swinney said:“ Scotland is blessed with some of the world’ s greatest green energy resources offshore.
“ Through EMEC’ s unrivalled expertise and the critical mass of companies now developing wave and tidal technologies in Scotland, we are leading international efforts to harness the unbridled energy of the seas to deliver safe, secure and sustainable energy and help protect the planet for future generations”.
“ This new partnership between Scotland and one of the world’ s great industrial powerhouses is very welcome, given our shared heritage for innovation and engineering”, Swinney added.
“ Just as‘ the father of Japanese lighthouses’, Richard Henry Brunton, helped Japan build a network of lighthouses in the late 19th century to protect sailors from the perils of the sea, our two nations are now working together to harness those very same forces of nature to generate clean energy”.
To further cement the links between wave and tidal energy research facilities and firms, a trade mission of Scottish firms is scheduled to visit Japan this year. According to Scottish Development International( SDI), Scotland has a long history of academic research into ways of utilising the nation’ s impressive wave and tidal resources, with studies by Professor Stephen Salter at the University of Edinburgh having broken new ground in the 1970s. Today, the university’ s Institute
24 | BCCJ ACUMEN | MAY 2013