Scottish waters are the natural home for marine renewables, First Minister Alex Salmond said today as he officially opened the new offices of SeaEnergy in Aberdeen.

SeaEnergy is the latest marine renewables development company to choose Scotland as the base for its drive to develop, own and operate large-scale offshore wind farms globally.

It is also among nine major developers and consortia which have today been granted exclusive development rights, by the Crown Estate, to 10 offshore sites around Scotland.

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If operating at maximum capacity, these sites would have the potential to generate a massive 6GW of offshore windpower - a figure which equates to Scotland's peak electricity consumption.

First Minister Alex Salmond said: "I am delighted to welcome SeaEnergy to Scotland. This is a company with ambition to be at the forefront of the growing marine renewables sector, a company that wants to lead the world in developing these technologies; in other words, a company which has found its natural home.”

Mr Salmond said Scotland has a competitive advantage in developing offshore renewables with up to 25% of Europe's offshore wind, wave and tidal energy potential and a world class scientific capacity and skills base.

(GK/JM)