14 DAY TRIAL // Throughout the course of this day, UK's Climate Change Minister is expected to officially open Scotland's first marine energy park.
It is expected that by harvesting tidal power in the Pentland Firth and Orkney areas, local communities will benefit from a much-needed economic boost and the country's ecological footprint will also be diminished to a considerable extent.
Apparently, as predicted by the Carbon Trust (i.e. the world leading organization in charge of helping governments and businesses switch to a low-carbon economy), proper marine power management could result in well over 26,000 new job opportunities being created.
This in turn would translate into ₤3 billion (about €3,83 billion / $4,72 billion) being added to UK's economy on a yearly basis.
Moreover, Business Green informs us that, according to Stephen Wyatt from the Carbon Trust, marine energy could deliver enough electricity to meet 11% of the country's total demands as soon as 2050.
The same source explains that the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Energy Park is bound to have a generating capacity of up to 1,6 GW, which would make it one of the largest wave and tidal power harvesting areas in the world.
Furthermore, said marine energy park will also incorporate the European Marine Energy Center, thus making the activity to harvest marine power ever more effective.
As Stephen Wyatt puts it, “We think that by 2025, we can get to a place that offshore wind is at today, where we're confident enough to push the button for mass deployment.”
Given the fact that, as of recently, the UK, the US and Canada all seem to have taken a liking to this renewable energy source, it is quite likely that soon enough the amounts of carbon emissions for which these countries are presently responsible will be significantly diminished, therefore opening the path towards a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.