Scotland: Wave energy to advance aquaculture

Wave Energy Scotland (WES), a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), has announced a £720,000 partnership expected to demonstrate wave energy converters as a means of powering offshore aquaculture installations.

According to WES, Albatern has teamed up with Marine Harvest, a seafood company, for the project that could power remote island communities in addition to offshore aquaculture installations.

Marine Harvest is hosting the project next to their Maclean’s Nose fish farm site south of Ardnamurchan, Scotland.

Tim Hurst, WES Managing Director, said: “This collaboration will help us to understand the market opportunities for small scale wave technology at aquaculture sites and in other off-grid situations. The results of this demonstration will help inform future public and private sector investment in wave energy technology, and could also potentially revolutionise the way fish farms and remote island and coastal communities are powered in the future, dramatically reducing their carbon footprints.”

David Campbell, Commercial Director of Albatern, added: “We are very pleased to play a key part in demonstrating wave energy working commercially on an operating fish farm. It also gives us the opportunity to show how our WaveNET array system can be applied to other offshore and coastal projects around the globe.”

Albatern is a Scottish wave energy player which has developed a modular array system called WaveNET that converts the energy from waves into electricity.

Scotland established WES in 2014 with the aim to advance its wave energy sector. It is fully funded by the Scottish government.

Image: WES