Staff of WES were delighted to meet Her Majesty The Queen and Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal in Edinburgh during Holyrood Week – a long standing tradition of visits from The Royal Family to sites and organisations of significance across the whole of Scotland.
As part of their visit to the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI), two of our senior staff explained and demonstrated the two technologies being tested as part of the (Novel Wave Energy Converter) NWEC programme.
“This visit was an incredible opportunity to highlight the work supported through the Wave Energy Scotland programme, and bring attention to the two technology companies who have been busy in the background preparing their devices for sea trials” said Elva Bannon, Senior Research Engineer.
Mocean Energy and AWS Ocean Energy have been part of the WES programme since 2015, progressing their technologies from scale tank model, through to their pilot scaled devices for testing in real sea conditions in Orkney over the coming months. Fabrication of Mocean Energy’s BlueX was completed in Rosyth in April before heading for Scapa Flow and where it is currently being tested. The AWS WaveSwing device is nearing completion in Glasgow and will be installed at the same EMEC test site in August.
There was genuine interest from the Royals in the two technologies, how wave energy fits in to the future energy mix and power for remote communities. Scotland has been a world leader in wave energy technology R&D for decades, so it is great to have an opportunity to showcase some of the latest developments to such an important audience.
Jonathan Hodges, Senior Innovation Engineer said “In the lead up to COP26 in Glasgow, there is an international focus on what Scotland and the UK are doing to address the wide range of issues of climate change. We need a selection of different renewable energy technologies to ensure we have enough electricity throughout the year, and it was great to talk about energy balance with Her Majesty”.
To keep up to date with progress on these two WEC technologies, check out their websites and follow our social media accounts - links at the bottom of the page.
Image by: Neil Hanna