Archive for March 2012
Vacancies at Aquamarine Power
March 30, 2012 | 
Author Edinburgh wave power company has several vacancies
Aquamarine Power were selected in the top ten UK’s Great Places to Work. They currently have the following vacancies at their Edinburgh headquarters:
For mroe details see the Aquamarine Power website
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Pelamis founder honoured for key role in marine energy
Yemm awarded second Saltire medal at Edinburgh conference
Dr Richard Yemm, inventor of the Pelamis wave energy device has been honoured for his outstanding contribution to the development of the marine renewables sector. The iconic red ‘sea-snake’ wave energy converter has gained international recognition since Dr Yemm founded Pelamis Wave Power in Edinburgh in 1998.
First Minister Alex Salmond presented Dr Yemm, now Commercial Director of Pelamis, with the second annual Saltire Prize Medal at the Scottish Renewables annual conference dinner in Edinburgh.
The annual award – presented under the auspices of Scotland’s £10 million Saltire Prize marine energy challenge – aims to recognise outstanding contributions by individuals and groups to the development of wave and/or tidal power generation.
The First Minister said:
“I am delighted to present Richard Yemm with the Saltire Prize Medal, an accolade which he richly deserves for his tireless commitment to the development of wave energy generation. Since forming the initial concept of the Pelamis wave energy converter and establishing the company in 1998, Richard has driven forward the technical and commercial development of Pelamis Wave Power, which now boasts major international utilities E.ON, ScottishPower and Vattenfall among its customers. He has made a huge contribution to the wider wave energy and renewables sector through his active engagement across industry and government. Richard’s drive, ambition and vision should be an inspiration to many young people who are considering careers in engineering, science and the energy industry. I congratulate him on receiving this award.”
Accepting the Medal, Dr Yemm commented:
“It is a huge honour to be presented with this prestigious award, which I am delighted to accept on behalf of all who have worked tirelessly alongside me over the years to deliver on this once in a generation opportunity for Scottish engineering and industry. This is an individual award, but wherever you take the time to look across this exciting new sector you can see exceptional individuals working together as one team to deliver on the ‘win-win’ of clean energy and economic development opportunity that marine energy represents. Our sector has a unique cohesiveness forged by experience that working together gives us – and an output much greater than the sum of the parts.”
Saltire Prize
The Saltire Prize, which has attracted more than 150 registrations of interest from 31 countries and already three official entrants, – will see £10 million awarded to the team that can demonstrate, in Scottish waters, a commercially-viable wave or tidal stream energy technology that achieves the greatest volume of electrical output over the set minimum hurdle of 100 GWh over a continuous two-year period using only sea power.
Information condensed from this Scottish Gvernment news release
The Heat Is On For Climate Change Denial
Public opinion changes with the weather . . .
Recent poll data from the USA show that public ‘belief’ in global warming is swinging back in favour after reaching an all-time low in 2010 and early 2011. 62% of respondents now agree the earth is warming, compared to a low point of only 52% two years ago in Spring 2010.
Analysts ascribe this resurgence to the record-breaking March heatwave that has gripped most of the continental USA for the entire month of March.
Meanwhile, scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies are predicting that an upswing in solar activity combined with the next El Niño will trigger record global temperatures over the next three years.
Climate models and their interpreters all agree that the number/percentage of extreme weather events will increase as a result of global warming. Although it cannot be proved that any individual event would or would not have occurred in a pre-industrial atmosphere, statistics and avarages will increasingly bear out that hypothesis as more and more extreme weather events occur.
The ordinary people so beloved of pollsters will make their judgement based not on what the IPCC or politicians tell them but on ‘common sense’ and what they see happening around them. An increase in extreme weather events will lead to increased ‘belief’ in MMGW and increased support for policies designed to mitigate it.
I think that we will see this trend taking hold increasingly over the next three years, which are likely to be record-breakers all over the globe.
I predict that 2011 will go down in history as the year the wave of climate change denial reached its highest point and broke, foaming and hissing impotently, on the jagged rocks of reality.
Gamesa Chooses Scotland For Turbine Manufacturing Facility
A huge vote of confidence in Scotland from a major investor
Wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa today gave a huge vote of confidence to the Scottish renewables sector and the UK offshore wind industry by announcing their plans to build a major manufacturing facility in Leith to produce the giant wind turbines that are set to be deployed around the British coast during the rest of this decade.
The new facility will manufacture the blades and machinery for these massive machines. The project could be worth around £125m of investment and is expected to support over 800 direct jobs.
Gamesa’s offshore wind business HQ is in London, but their Research and Development centre is in Glasgow. This announcement shows Gamesa’s commitment to establishing Scotland as the main focus of their worldwide offshore wind business, and yet again gives the lie to the nonsense being spouted about the referendum scaring off investors.
(The other city on Gamesa’s short list was Hartlepool).
Welcoming Gamesa’s announcement, Prime Minister David Cameron couldn’t resist the opportunity to slip the ‘U’ word in:
“This is fantastic news for Scotland and shows that the UK remains an attractive place for foreign investment. Scotland benefits from UK wide initiatives to promote renewables and access to the entire UK consumer market. That coupled with the economic security that comes from being part of one of the world’s most successful unions makes Scotland an obvious place for companies like Gamesa to invest in.”
Ed Davey similarly couldn’t resist a rather pointless and unconvincing plug for the Union, saying:
“I am delighted that Gamesa has chosen to invest in Leith and cement its commitment to the UK offshore wind market. This was clearly a closely run race between two excellent locations – a powerful message to the offshore wind industry that the UK is the place to be. Projects like this have the potential to bring investment and support jobs across the whole of the country. Being a United Kingdom means we can attract the large investment necessary and keep costs down.”
Welcome to Scotland, Gamesa. You’ve made the right choice.
Links
The announcement on Gamesa’s website
SNP welcome Gamesa jobs announcement (from the SNP website)
Osborne budget fails to invest in Scotland’s renewable future
Budget could ’undermine’ Scotland’s green energy ambitions.
Scottish Greens claimed yesterday that the UK Budget will undermine Scotland’s renewable energy ambitions.
George Osborne’s measures including further cuts in corporation tax for big business, incentives to extract more fossil fuels and no support for Scotland’s massive renewable energy potential.
Green MSP Patrick Harvie said:
“Scotland has the lion’s share of renewable energy resource in the UK, but the Chancellor has shown himself stuck on the dirty fuels of the last century. By investing in Scotland’s renewable energy potential rather than old fashioned fossil fuels, the UK government could have given our economy the shot in the arm it needs. Tax breaks for big oil and gas corporations do nothing for the environment or equality – Scotland needs this budget like a hole in the head.”
The SNP cautiously welcomed the plans for Enhanced Capital Allowances to apply at Nigg, Irvine and Dundee, which they said means that new, low carbon technologies and industries will now bring investment into these areas. They also welcomed the commitment to support oil and gas decommissioning and the new field allowances west of Shetland.