Inverness, 2012-Mar-26
The move into Inverness by Marine Current Turbines has been welcomed by Fergus Ewing, Scotland’s Energy Minister: "I welcome the opening of Marine Current Turbines' Inverness office, capitalising on Scotland's expertise and natural resources to create jobs and opportunities in Inverness."
"We know Scotland's waters are host to awesome forces and that there is enough wave and tidal energy around Scotland to meet our demands for power several times over. Scotland leads the world in marine energy and we are already seeing significant investment in the industry benefitting communities across Scotland. We have a tenth of Europe's wave power and a quarter of its tidal power as well as the legacy and expertise of our traditional energy industries.”
David Langston, who has worked in the marine energy sector for over 15 years, will lead MCT’s plans for the commercial tidal farms in Kyle Rhea (Isle of Skye) and Brough Ness, off the southern tip of the Orkney Islands. He will also support MCT’s wider business ambitions.
The two tidal farms will deploy MCT’s proven tidal technology, SeaGen, which has recently passed the 3GWh generation milestone at Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. The proposed Kyle Rhea 8MW tidal farm will consist of up to 4 turbines and will generate enough power for 8000 homes. The Brough Ness project in the Orkneys is expected to be a 99MW farm which is targeted to be deployed in three phases between 2017 and 2020, subject to planning and financing.
David Langston said: "MCT is at the forefront of the tidal energy power sector and it has proven that its SeaGen technology represents a commercially viable and environmentally sustainable solution to low carbon power generation. I am excited by the opportunity to help the company move forwards to commercialisation and bring the two Scottish projects to fruition."
Dr Andrew Tyler, chief executive officer of MCT said: "We are thrilled to have David Langston join MCT to help us drive forward with the commercial rollout of our SeaGen technology at this pivotal time for the sector. David successfully delivered a number of key projects for Wavegen and we believe his experience will be invaluable to our ambitions in Scotland. It is our intention to recruit more people in Scotland within the next few months as we move forward with our work."
In January 2012 we published our Project Investment Prospectuses for Kyle Rhea and our Anglesey Skerries projects, and in February we became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens so this new office reinforces our efforts to make tidal energy part of the UK’s energy mix."
MCT’s satellite office in Inverness has also been welcomed by Highland & Islands Enterprise. Calum Davidson, HIE’s Director of Energy and Low Carbon said: "We are delighted that MCT has decided to establish a presence here in the Highland Capital, already a significant hub for wave and tidal development. As MCT has two significant and exciting projects in the pipeline for the Highlands and Islands, it makes real business sense for them to be co-located with the region's marine energy research, fabrication and deployment supply chain. We feel that this further strengthens our marine energy sector here in the Highlands and Islands and HIE will of course be working closely with MCT to support their growth and the successful delivery of their tidal energy projects."
Tidal turbines are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2011, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about €30 billion, making Siemens one of the world’s largest suppliers of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by nearly 320 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO2 emissions of Berlin, Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo.
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Notes to editors:
About Siemens in the UK
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 169 years ago and now employs 12,972 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £4.4 billion*. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry, infrastructure & cities and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
* Data includes intercompany revenue. Data may not be comparable with revenue reported in annual or interim reports.
About Marine Current Turbines
Marine Current Turbines is headquartered in Bristol and since February 2011 has been a subsidiary business of Siemens plc. Founded in 1999, MCT has led the market in developing and patenting tidal current stream energy devices. The company is taking forward a number of tidal projects in Scotland, Wales and Canada. In Scotland, MCT is developing an 8MW tidal farm in Kyle Rhea (Scotland’s Isle of Skye) and has an approval for a lease from The Crown Estate to deploy a 100MW tidal farm off Brough Ness, on the southern-most tip of the Orkney Islands. MCT is also developing a 10MW tidal farm off Anglesey, north Wales (the Skerries tidal project), and is working with Minas Basin Pulp & Power to deploy a single SeaGen tidal system in Canada’s Bay of Fundy. (www.marineturbines.com)
For more information, contact:
Rachel Odams
PR Manager
Siemens plc
Tel. +44 (0)1604 696614
Mob: +44 (0)7808 824209
