Scotland opened its first — and the world’s largest — marine energy park earlier this week. The Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Energy Park (MEP) is expected to have a power capacity of up to 1.6 GW.
The UK leads tidal power in the world, with 46 power devices under development, including the South West MEP that opened earlier in 2012. The US comes in second with 17 tidal power devices, while Canada has 10, ranking third.
It’s estimated that tidal power could create 26,000 jobs and supply up to 20 percent of the UK’s electricity needs by 2050. However, some are still skeptical of the new technology with its high cost of project implementation and difficulty attracting investors.
Source: The Guardian
Image: Lian Deng via Shutterstock
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