Communities ‘key’ to success of wave and tidal power

Coastal communities will play a major role in the generation of hundreds of megawatts of power at sea, a leading figure in renewables has said. Neil Kermode said wave and tidal devices in the Pentland Firth and off Orkney would have to be serviced by nearby ports and workers. Several seabed sites have been leased to companies to test marine devices.Mr Kermode is managing director at the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) on Orkney. He has been in Inverness for a Scottish Renewables conference on marine renewables. The two-day event is the largest of its kind to be held in Scotland. Mr Kermode said it was right that communities in the Highlands and Islands should benefit from wind, wave and tidal energy being exploited off their shores. He also said they would be the first to receive electricity from commercial-scale schemes.'Natural process' Mr Kermode said: "When you look at Aberdeen, it is not the size it is because of its historic link to herring fishing but because of oil and gas. "The same thing could happen for ports close to where the wave and tidal devices will go, though we're not kidding ourselves that it will be on the ...