OCEAN ENERGY WINNERS

Scottish Power, Pelamis Win Marine Energy Contracts
Rodney Jefferson and Alex Morales (w/Reed Landberg and Randall Hackley), March 16, 2010 (Bloomberg News via BusinessWeek)

"Iberdrola SA’s Scottish Power unit and Pelamis Wave Power Ltd. won some of the 10 contracts awarded…by the U.K. government that aim to generate electricity from changes in the tides.

"The Crown Estate, the state-controlled manager of British property, agreed to six wave and four tidal projects in the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters in northeast Scotland…The contracts may generate enough power for 700,000 homes and lead to investments of as much as 4 billion pounds ($6 billion) within a decade. Perth, Scotland-based Scottish & Southern Energy Plc, E.ON AG of Germany and a venture involving France’s EDF SA and Siemens AG also won contracts…"

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"Additional investments will be needed to develop harbors and to connect to the national grid. Initial challenges include gaining planning consent from local councils…

"Marine energy has the potential to power 15 million homes by 2050, cutting as much as 70 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the [UK] Department of Energy and Climate Change said…The industry may create as many as 16,000 jobs by the 2040s…"

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"Energy and Climate-Change Minister David Kidney said…wave and tidal energy may provide 2,000 megawatts of power to the U.K. by 2020, enough for about 1.4 million homes. The Scottish projects… range from 50 megawatts to 200 megawatts for a total of 1,200 megawatts.

"The technologies are still largely at a demonstration stage, and the industry is dominated by private start-ups. Even so, companies such as Germany’s Siemens and Vattenfall AB of Sweden are moving into the area as it grows."