Wave energy has a huge potential to help move our economies towards a post-carbon future, but progress around the world to bring the appropriate technologies to a commercial scale has been rather slow.
In Scotland, however, the situation is quite different. Home to many islands and tidal currents, the country has been investing heavily in tidal energy technologies — all in a bid to bring the country closer to its climate goals. A recently unveiled wave energy-harvesting prototype is now expected to further enhance those efforts.
Called Blue X, the machine prototype weighs 38 metric tons and measures 20 meters in length. It was developed by UK-based wave power company Mocean Energy, and will soon be deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre’s Scapa Flow site for trials. If the trials go according to plan, the machine will eventually be connected to an underwater battery that will be used to power remote-controlled underwater vehicles.
Scotland has some of the world’s most ambitious climate targets, aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by 75 percent by 2030 — a target that the country’s likely to achieve given that in 2020 alone it managed to supply 97 percent of its electricity demand with renewables. As part of its Climate Change Plan, the government is supporting projects like Blue X to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045.
