A Boost for wave power in Ireland  

The Irish Herald reports that a 250 MW wave power plant is to be built on Ireland's west coast - Boost for wave power

A joint Irish-Swedish multinational company is preparing to develop a wave energy project along the Atlantic coast which could generate enough energy to power Cork city by 2020. The new venture with Tonn Energy, which is backed by the Swedish multinational utility company Vattenfall and indigenous Irish technology firm Wavebob, is hoping to generate up to 250MWs of electricity, enough for 180,000 homes and employ around 250 people.

Planning, installation, operation and maintenance work of pre-commercial devices at the national wave-energy test site at Belmullet, Co Mayo, will now begin. "Ireland could be to wave energy what Saudi Arabia is to oil," Wavebob chief executive Andrew Parish said yesterday.

With British North Sea production of oil and natural gas 44 percent below its peak, Aberdeen, the self-styled oil capital of Europe, fears the slowdown is not simply cyclical. An oil industry that at one stage inspired talk of Scotland as “the Kuwait of the West” has already outlived most predictions, having enjoyed a hydrocarbon heyday of almost five decades. As it prepares for the end of oil, Aberdeen is remaking itself, putting its hopes in renewable energy and tourism. “I’m steering my kids away from anything to do with oil,” said John Irvine, a truck driver who used to work on the rigs. “It’s not going to last forever.” ...

When the oil finally does run out, the decommissioning of hundreds of offshore platforms and thousands of pipelines will be an opportunity in itself. The infrastructure will need to be disassembled and returned to shore for disposal, creating a market worth at least £23 billion, estimates Oil and Gas UK, an industry lobbying group. “It could be the beginning of a whole new industry,” said Lewis MacDonald, a member of the Scottish Parliament representing Aberdeen Central.