Significant job creation is being generated by the drive to harvest energy from the seas around Scotland.

As developers get closer to producing commercial-scale power from waves and tidal currents, their efforts are already benefiting coastal communities in the Highlands and Islands.

Orkney-based Scotrenewables has a 19-strong team involved in a range of renewables projects - including the development of a free-floating, twin-rotor tidal turbine for deployment in the waters around the islands.

Marine renewables pioneer Barry Johnston, who created the company six years ago, is currently looking for two more people to join a team he describes as "young, talented and fizzing with ideas".

His company, now one of the biggest employers in Stromness, has attracted international investment for its tidal power project from French oil giant Total and shipping magnate Fred Olsen.

-- Advertisement --

Fred Olsen Renewables, one of a portfolio of international businesses owned by Mr Olsen's Norwegian family, is offering backing worth £6.2m.

"It's the biggest single investment ever made in a Scottish tidal energy company," said Mr Johnston. "With this level of support, we are in a really strong position to make a success of our tidal energy device."

A fifth-scale version weighing two tonnes is under construction ready for testing this winter, with the first full-size prototype scheduled to undergo trials at the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre in 2010.

"The challenges are enormous," he said. "We are developing complex technology for a hostile environment - but we are all determined to make it work."

One challenge has been less of a problem than he expected.

"Based in a community some might regard as remote, I thought it might be difficult to attract staff. But the opposite is true and today, as well as employing 10 from Orkney itself, we have people from Germany, Ireland and France, as well as elsewhere in the UK."

He believes the chance to join a company at the cutting edge of marine energy development helps explain his success in building his workforce.

"I'm very fortunate to have a young team who share an innovative and open minded approach," Mr Johnston added. "As a result there's a really energetic vibe in the office, which make it a great place to work."

The European Marine Energy Centre is playing a key role in making wave and tidal energy a commercial reality.

EMEC operates two test sites, one for wave energy converters off Stromness, the other for tidal turbines off the island of Eday.

(GK/JM)