Scotland embraces wave energy

The Scottish government announced it gave approval to its first commercial wave power array, which could deliver power to more than 1,000 homes. Scotland announced that two wave energy converters will be installed at an existing facility that operators Aquamarine Power will use to test as part of a wave energy array. "This array will supply more than 1,000 homes with clean energy and should the demonstrator be successful the technology being developed here will power hundreds of thousands more homes in future," said Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing. Edinburgh said each converter can generate as much as 800 kilowatts of electricity. Each of the converters serves as a demonstrator, the government said, though an entire array would later become the first to link up to the national electricity grid. "Scotland has unparalleled natural resources, with a 10th of Europe's wave power, and these new devices will help us to fully harness the huge energy resources around our own coast and contribute to global efforts to expand clean, green electricity generation," said Ewing. Scotland has some of the most ambitious renewable energy targets in Europe. The government aims to meet 100 percent of the electricity demand through renewable energy resources by 2020.