Scotland: The Saudi Arabia of tidal and wave power!
SSE Renewables, the renewable energy unit of Scottish and Southern Energy, was awarded exclusive rights to develop up to 400 megawatts of wave and tidal-powered electricity in and around the Scottish coast as part of a massive tender administered by the Crown Estate.
The Crown Estate also awarded leases to Iberdrola of Spain, the U.K. unit of ScottishPower, and Germany’s E.ON.
SSE Renewable does not expect to begin constructing the projects until at least 2015, the company said in a statement released this morning.
Partnering on the SSE Renewables projects are Aquamarine Power, an Edinburgh-based developer of wave-powered electric generation technology and OpenHydro, a manufacturer and installer of tidal energy systems based in Dublin.
The four sites, all located in Scotland, are Costa Head (wave-powered project); Westray South (tidal stream-powered project); Brough Head (wave-powered project, to be developed in partnership with Aquamarine); and Cantick Head (tidal stream-powered project, to be developed in partnership with OpenHydro).
The Crown Estate and seeks to develop 1.2 gigawatts of marine energy off the coast of Scotland, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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