Staff with a Caithness civil engineering firm, working on behalf of the Highland Council, have been taking advantage of a recent astronomical phenomenon to secure the future integrity of a key access road in the Far North. A small section of the foundations of the Council's 'spur' access road from the John O'Groats to Thurso A 836 route to busy Gills Harbour were undermined by the action of a 'very severe' sea-storm last winter.
The latest vessel in a Far North fleet servicing marine renewables in 'Pentland Firth & Orkney Waters' made her debut call at Gills Harbour on July 2nd, 2013 and was based there for the next three days. The motor vessel Ocean Explorer is a recent addition to the 6-strong flotilla of 'marine electricity support vessels' owned and operated by Leask Marine Ltd, of Kirkwall, Orkney Islands.
Deputy Harbour Master Jason Hamilton (white hard hat) with new employee Donald McIntyre (blue hard hat). Scrabster Harbour Trust has been able to take on a new member of staff thanks to funding secured via The Highland Council's Employment Grant scheme.
Wick Harbour Authority's ambitious plans to attract new jobs to the area from the offshore wind industry have received a boost with the combined support of £450,000 from two partners in the Caithness & North Sutherland Regeneration Partnership (CNSRP). The Harbour Authority is positioning the port to attract business from the two large offshore wind developments in the Moray Firth, and is currently working on a multi-phase programme to ensure that its facilities meet the requirements of industry.
The Highland Fisheries Local Action Group (FLAG) has awarded funding of £30,098 to Wick Harbour Authority for the purchase of additional infrastructure to increase the capacity at Wick Marina from 72 to 84 berths. Interpretation panels will also be installed in the area around the harbour to promote the maritime heritage of Wick and provide information regarding the diversification process to create a modern port.
New updated sketch 'renderings' of the World's first purpose-built tidal stream turbine installation ship, the planned HiFlo-4 catamaran vessel, have just been released by her designers Mojo Maritime Ltd, of Falmouth, Cornwall, one of Britain's most technologically-innovative 'green' marine energy specialist engineering companies. Its managing director Captain Richard Parkinson has told Gills Harbour Ltd's chairman that its innovative vessel is on track for being delivered from her builder's shipyard during the summer of 2015.
The powerful modern 25 metre 'multi-cat' vessel 'Orcadia' berthed at Gills Harbour on Friday morning 17th May 2013; her first call there this year. She is owned and operated by Scotmarine Ltd, of Stromness, Orkney, one of a group of 'marine renewables' companies in the islands founded and headed by entrepreneur Barry Johnston.
Some indicative Pentland Firth energy sketches relating to Gills Bay/Gills Harbour, Caithness, KW1 4YB. The sketches have been drafted for Gills Harbour Ltd by Mark Fresson, a senior architect at Archial Ltd's North of Scotland office in Inverness and kindly donated to community-owned Gills company.
Two top Highland Council leaders have been paying a fact-finding visit to Gills Harbour. Council convener Councillor Jimmy Gray and Caithness & Sutherland Area Committee chair Councillor Deirdre Mackay looked over facilities at the busy Canisbay facility, on the shores of the Pentland Firth's Inner Sound.
Local roots of lead installations engineer for first tidal-stream turbies to enter Inner Sound. A Caithness-descended sub-sea engineer, who is proud of his Canisbay parish roots, is to take charge of the installation of the very first electricity-generating tidal turbine in the Pentland Firth's Inner Sound next year (2014).
New offices for Hugh Simpson contractors well known locally for cranes and oil have new offices almost ready at Wick harbour. The ofices are on the site of the former Wick Power station that was finally demolished in October 2008..
Report by Bill Mowat The vessel was there for Mojo Maritime Ltd of Falmouth, Cornwall and was in port to deploy three 'Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler' (ADCP) devices on the seabed of the Pentland Firth's Inner Sound. This was undertaken for MeyGen Ltd, the company that holds the Crown Estate's seabed licence for that part of the Firth as a site for development as 'the world's first commercial tidal stream electricity power station'.
A GROUP of Caithnessians recently had the opportunity to get to grips with the world of undersea robotics. The short training programme was delivered by Wick-based specialist subsea training company Mackay Underwater Technology Limited.
"Professional Equipment for Work & Leisure, At, On or Under the Water" Mackay Underwater Technology - Watersports is based at Wick harbour, close to the marina, and offers a wide range of quality chandlery equipment to the boat user. "With the success of Wick's marina, and the county's deep seated tradition of working at sea, it seemed only logical to expand the business into the chandlery area.
One of the UK's newest and most versatile 'marine renewables support vessels' has been showing off some of her capabilities at Gills Harbour on the Pentland Firth. The one-year-old 'multi-cat' vessel Orcadia, which was reported to have cost £3.5 million when she was delivered last year from Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands, was making her debut visit to the community-owned Caithness harbour.
The Chairman of the community body that owns and operates Gills Harbour, on the shores of the Pentland Firth's Inner Sound, is welcoming the findings of a group of Parliamentarians whose Inquiry report 'The Future of Marine Renewables in the UK' has just been published. The Westminster MPs of the Energy & Climate Change Committee looked at the future for electricity that can be generated by harnessing the 'kinetic energy' in flow of Britain's tidal streams and from the power of the waves; both technologies are experimenting with turbines that are still at the 'prototype' stage.
This map shows the area of the first phase of 86 turbines and the lines for the cables. For more about the project and MeyGen got to www.meygen.com.
Information from the Meygen materials supplied at the public meetings in December 2011. The full pubicatiosn are online at www.meygen.com.
One of the first companies to get going with their plans to extract the huge energy potential form the Pentland Firth is Meygen. Their plans were unveiled to Caithness people at Mey Hall a few days ago.
The MeyGen tidal energy project is a 400MW project in the early stages of development located in the Inner Sound, Pentland Firth. We are currently carrying out a consultation process in order to canvass opinion of which of the environmental impacts should be focussed upon in the Environmental Impact Assessment.