Aquamarine Power secures 40MW Lewis seabed leases
19 May 11
The Western Isles could capitalise on Scotland's green energy
boom following the news today that Aquamarine Power has secured
seabed leases to capture up to 40MW of wave energy off the west
coast of Lewis.
Following a series of meetings with the local community,
stakeholders and officials, we have obtained leases from seabed
owner the Crown Estate. This will enable us to start environmental
and feasibility studies and continue working with the local
community and other key groups on the potential to install our
Oyster wave energy technology.
We will need to secure planning consents from Comhairle nan
Eilean Siar and government regulator Marine Scotland before any
development can take place.
Scoping report
Representatives of Aquamarine Power have already met with local
landowners to discuss our outline plans. We will issue a
'scoping report' tomorrow seeking views of statutory and local
consultees on our draft proposal. We will undertake extensive
environmental monitoring and consultation before formally
submitting an application to Marine Scotland later this year.
Aquamarine Power has secured two leases. One is a 10MW
demonstration lease for a site between Siadar and Fivepenny, known
as the Galson site; the other is a 30MW lease granted under the
Crown Estate's recent 'Saltire Prize' leasing round - which offers
an area of search between Bàgh Dhail Beag and Tràigh
Shanndaigh.
We will take guidance and work closely with local communities
and stakeholders to identify the most appropriate 30MW site within
the search area. Once this has been identified and Aquamarine Power
has secured all permissions and consents required, we will seek a
formal lease with the Crown Estate. The lease area will be known as
the North West Lewis site. Following this the rest of the search
area will become available to other potential developers seeking a
seabed lease.
Potential to power 38,000 homes
The development has the potential to see up to 40 Oyster
nearshore devices installed across both locations on an approximate
2km stretch of coast. The proposed sites would have a total
installed capacity of 40MW and could provide enough energy to power
38,000 homes.
We have officially registered our intent to use the Lewis site
to compete for the Scottish Government's Saltire Prize, a £10
million global prize for the wave or tidal technology which
generates the greatest volume of electrical output over 100GWh over
a continuous two year period using only the power of the sea.