A WAVE driven electricity generator developed in Scotland is to be installed in Portuguese waters. The move has sent Scottish MPs reeling, because they say that the Pelamis Wave Energy Device could have, in fact, been assembled in Scotland.
The Ocean Power Delivery Company’s technological development, which left Stornoway last Tuesday for assembly in Portugal, will generate power for thousands of Portuguese homes.
The Portuguese government and state, heavily reliant on imported oil products for energy and fuel sources, has long been looking to alternative and environmentally friendly projects such as wind driven turbines and electricity generating wave machines.
Shadow Energy and Environment Minister, Richard Lochhead MSP, has now accused Labour and Liberal Democrats of missing a golden opportunity of having the device assembled in Scotland instead of allowing the Portuguese to install the world’s first commercial wave energy scheme, snatching the deal from behind its back. Lochhead said: “If the slow coaches in the Labour and Liberal Democrat administration had got their act together, the project could have been installed in our own waters rather than in Portugal’s.”
