Oct 29 - Government Reports Progress On Marine Renewables
Representatives from Blue Shark Power have been visiting Gibraltar again, this time to conduct oceanographic studies in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. Experts from Énergie de la Lune (an engineering firm specialising in marine renewable energy oceanography) accompanied by officials from the Department of the Environment & Climate Change, have been surveying the southern waters of Gibraltar in order to determine the most promising locations for potential deployment of marine current technology. Using an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), the team have been measuring water current velocities over a depth range to identify the sites which have the strongest currents.
This is the latest development in Government’s commitment to explore marine renewable energy and to produce at least 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. The Government says that identifying the exact location of Gibraltar’s tidal resources is a critical step in being able to harness the energy from these and this work will inform any future marine renewables programme.
Minister for the Environment, Dr John Cortes, commented: “I am very pleased to see that we are now seeing real progress in our aim to introduce new renewable energy technology in Gibraltar. This type of research into marine renewables places Gibraltar at the cutting edge of pioneering technologies in this field. The use of the wonderful resource that is the sea around Gibraltar for providing clean power to our community is now getting closer.”
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