Here you will find out all of our latest updates through News and Blog pages.
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Energy: The Crown Estate held an event in Thurso this week to update the public on progress with wave and tidal energy plans in the Pentland Firth strategic area. Speakers at the well-attended event included John Callaghan (Crown Estate), Stuart Black (Highland Council), Roy Kirk and Norma Hogan (HIE), Pippa Goldschmidt (Marine Scotland), Dan Pearson […]
Energy: Along with a number of other stakeholders, I attended two events this week related to the development of renewable energy. The first was the public consultation on the proposed Orkney-Caithness subsea cable link. Phase 1 of this is likely to come ashore around the Forss/ Dounreay area, and SSE is currently seeking comments on […]
Energy: Following a meeting with representatives of Scottish Power Renewables this week (see below for details) it was agreed that I would bring together a mini “task force” to help SPR address key issues and to raise awareness of local capabilities in key areas (skills, infrastructure, etc). This is a significant collective step forward as […]
Energy: Scottish Government Energy Minister Fergus Ewing MSP has initiated a Government Taskforce to help develop offshore renewables (offshore wind, wave and tidal). The Taskforce’s first meeting was last Friday, and it aims to focus on ensuring developers provide good applications, and also on ensuring that the licensing/ consenting process deals with development applications swiftly. […]
Energy: Following last week’s announcement of a consultation on revised ROC bandings for renewable energy sources, further positive news for the wave and tidal industry in the form of a Scottish Government announcement that £18M is to be made available to “improve capability and infrastructure, as well as helping fund technology solutions and the roll […]
Energy Scottish Government announced today (Friday) a consultation on the ROC bands applying under the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) mechanism. ROC’s are seen by the renewables industry as an important support mechanism in the key early stages of developing renewables technologies. The key relevant highlight for our area is the proposal to increase the level of […]
Enabling Activities: I met this week with Susan Johnston of JobCentre Plus, to discuss their important role in supporting the area’s economy. I also introduced her to colleagues form Highland Council’s Employability service in the area. Speaking at a meeting of the Make The Right Connections project board this week, I was keen to highlight […]
Energy: In common with several other businesses and agencies I had a meeting this week with representatives of a company in the marine renewables sector who are thinking of setting up a base in Caithness. It was further confirmation of the growing interest from companies in locating their services close to the Pentland and Moray […]
Energy: The Pentland Firth & Orkney Waters Leadership Forum met in Kirkwall this week, and I attended representing Highland Council (deputising for Stuart Black). This is the group of public sector bodies (Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Highland Council, Orkney Islands Council, Marine Scotland and The Crown Estate) seeking to take forward the PFOW […]
Energy: I met this week with representatives of Energy Hunt, the Caithness-based company that has recently won the contract to maintain the Met Mast being installed as part of the proposed Moray Offshore Renewables Ltd offshore wind site off the Caithness coast. Energy Hunt is also working for Scottish Power Renewables facilitating community engagement related […]