Renewable resources will make Scotland the “Silicon Valley” of marine energy in the same way that hi-tech industries transformed Northern California, the First Minister said in the keynote speech of his American trade mission.
First Minister Alex Salmond made the claim during a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, the oldest public affairs forum in the United States.
In a speech entitled “Scotland: A Good Global Citizen”, the First Minister told an audience of Californians that Scotland’s growing marine energy industry will turn the country into an international center of excellence – with potentially huge economic and environmental rewards.
The First Minister said: “Scotland is a nation which has made a big contribution to the world in the past and has a huge amount to offer the world in the future. We are ambitious for the future, both for ourselves and what we can contribute to the rest of the world.
“I believe that developing the concentration of expertise, commitment and investment in marine energy that Scotland already possesses will make us the Silicon Valley of marine energy.
“That patch of Northern California that became known as Silicon Valley began by creating a community of technical scholars. Big business followed the skills and big rewards soon followed – and the same is happening in Scotland in our marine energy sector.
“All twelve of Scotland’s major universities have formed the Energy Technology Partnership, which earlier this year agreed a unique collaboration with Abu Dhabi’s prestigious Masdar Energy Institute.
“Glasgow is the premier center in Europe for offshore wind research, with Strathclyde University’s $114,165,000 Technology and Innovation Centre a hub for researchers and industry to work together on pioneering technology.
“There are more different types of wave and tidal devices in the waters around Scotland than in the rest of the world combined and the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters leasing area is the world’s largest commercial scale marine energy site.
“We possess 10 per cent of Europe’s wave power resources and 25 per cent of its offshore wind and tidal resources – all with only 1 per cent of the EU population.
“Scotland is becoming the Silicon Valley of marine energy worldwide. Having been at the heart of the marine engineering revolution of the 19th century, we are now placing ourselves at the heart of the marine engineering revolution of the 21st century.
“As hi-tech industries concentrated in Silicon Valley and transformed the economic landscape of Northern California, so marine energy will do for Scotland.”
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Offshore WIND staff, June 20, 2012; Image: Scottish Government