Pelamis prepares to push boat out for Scottish wave energy project

Ambitious plans to develop a £60m wave power project off the coast of Scotland's Shetland Islands edged forward last week when wave energy developer Pelamis signed a new joint venture agreement with European energy giant Vattenfall.

The companies said that they would work together on the project, dubbed Aegir after a Norse mythological sea god.

The companies said the new facility would feature 26 of Pelamis' P2 180m long-wave power machines, which are in total capable of generating up to 200MW of power, which is enough to provide power for about 13,000 households per year.

The first machine is currently being built at Pelamis' headquarters in Leith and the first phase of the initiative is due to go live in 2014. The companies said they are now just awaiting planning permission and the construction of a subsea transmission cable in order to begin construction work on the project.

Pelamis was set up in 1998 under the guise of Ocean Power Delivery by Drs Richard Yemm, Dave Pizer and Chris Retzler to develop a wave energy converter. It changed its name in September 2007 and has raised investment to the sum of £40m, now employing 70 staff.

As Scotland's largest wave power scheme, the new facility would go some way towards helping the country hit its target of reducing greenhouse gases by 42 per cent by 2020, as laid out in the Scottish Climate Change Act.

Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said that marine energy offered a " fantastic opportunity" for the country because of the "huge renewable potential " around its coast and its strong offshore engineering skills.

According to a report published earlier this year by a range of non-governmental organisations, including WWF, Scotland has the potential to boost energy generation from renewable sources to the point where they could meet between 60 and 143 per cent of its projected requirements from renewable sources by 2030.