EMEC Supporting China Marine Energy Centre
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EMEC Supporting China Marine Energy Centre

UK wave and tidal energy experts are building innovation links with China based on the experience at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, UK. As Chinese academics turn their attention towards the global potential for marine renewable energy, they invited EMEC and other UK industry experts to visit their developing ‘blue silicon valley’ in Qingdao, discussing the creation of a Chinese version of EMEC: CMEC. A workshop focusing on wider commercial dialogue between the UK marine energy supply chain and China will take place from 15-17 February 2017 in China.

The Prosperity Fund project, supported by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and China Britain Business Council (CBBC), was set up to help progress policy support in China towards developing a demonstration site to facilitate innovation in wave and tidal energy. The project involves EMEC providing feasibility studies around the creation of a CMEC facility as part of a brand new £200 million (2 billion Yuan) marine laboratory campus in Shandong Province, China.

Ocean Energy Demonstration Site

Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology will serve as the base for the project, drawing researchers from a number of Chinese universities. An ocean energy demonstration site has already been identified as a key aspect of the lab’s innovation activities.

Following an initial workshop in Orkney in October this year, Neil Kermode, EMEC’s managing director visited the new lab in Qingdao this month to take part in a follow-up workshop, part of the ‘Aoshan Forum’. He sees that the maritime capabilities in and around Qingdao are astonishing, and China has a very strong stance on tackling climate change. Combined, this makes marine energy an interesting and important endeavour for their researchers. They met several academics who are already developing technologies and the new laboratory campus in Qingdao gives them a perfect base from which to progress their innovations.

James Brodie, Director of Energy at CBBC said that with the inclusion of marine energy in China’s 13th Five Year Plan and ambitious targets, it’s an emerging sector that the country would like to see developed rapidly but gaps remain in their innovation infrastructure to make this a reality. The UK can support and benefit from this development by engaging at an early but crucial stage.

A third workshop focussing on wider commercial dialogue between the UK marine energy supply chain and China will take place between 15-17th February 2017.

 

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