An £18m fund to help develop Scotland's first commercial wave and tidal power arrays was opened today.

First Minister Alex Salmond announced in Aberdeen that Scotland's Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF) is now open for bids by developers.

Mr Salmond told the AllEnergy conference that the program's first grant of £500,000 to transform a dock ten miles from Glasgow city centre will create a key manufacturing location for renewable energy.

WB Westway has secured £500,000 to support development of its 53-hectare industrial site in Renfrewshire. It will support work to dredge the dock area, create a navigable channel on the River Cart and deliver quayside improvements to allow loadings from heavy components manufactured on site for the offshore renewables sector. The improvements have the potential to accelerate wider development plans for a further 30 acres of land, with a master-plan that could see up to £70 million invested in the area over the next decade.

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The First Minister said the MRCF would help marine energy become commercially viable.

He said: "Europe’s greatest wind, wave and tidal resources are heavily concentrated in waters around these islands and Scotland is at the forefront of developing low carbon energy generation technologies. The new fund will help move the wave and tidal sector from prototype devices to commercially-viable arrays, producing increasing amounts of electricity solely from the power of the seas."

The MRCF is open for bids for two months from today and successful projects will be announced by the end of the year.

(NE)