Minister of State Charles Hendry saw the positive effects of Government support for Scottish renewable energy projects during an official visit to Edinburgh today.
He began his trip with a visit to Artemis Intelligent Power, an innovative green technology company based in the City.
Artemis was one of the first recipients of a DECC grant as part of the Low Carbon Energy Demonstration programme. The project, ‘Field proving of Digital Displacement® hydraulic wind-turbine transmission’ was intended to accelerate the development of Artemis technology as a means of bringing down the lifetime costs and improving the performance of large offshore wind-turbines.
DECC has continued to support the development of the Artemis wind-turbine transmission as part of the Environmental Transformation Fund.
The potential of the technology has been recognised by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries who acquired the company in 2010 and have announced that they intend to use the technology in a new 7MW offshore wind specific turbine that is currently under development. Artemis is also focussing on the development of drive-trains for the next generation of multi-megawatt offshore wind-turbines.
The visit continued with the Minister’s annual address to students at the University of Edinburgh Business School.
The Minister stressed that while oil and gas remain a key part of the energy mix, renewables are now also providing opportunities, including providing power for hundreds of thousands of homes and delivering as many as 70,000 jobs over the next decade.