It was a pleasure to welcome Dan McGrail, CEO of Great British Energy, to Orkney last week.
During the visit, Dan and his team saw first-hand how Orkney’s world-leading energy expertise aligns with Great British Energy’s mission – from accelerating renewable energy technologies to enabling secure, home-grown energy solutions for the UK.
The visit highlighted Orkney’s long-standing role as a real-world testbed for innovation, and how the experience, infrastructure and knowledge developed here can support ambitions to scale clean energy for public benefit.
As part of the visit, EMEC and Orbital Marine Power provided an overview of Orbital’s technology development programme, including innovations being progressed through the EU-funded MaxBlade and FORWARD-2030 projects. A stop at the SR2000 blade outside EMEC’s offices in Stromness helped illustrate the scale of progress already achieved in tidal energy, while demonstrating how ongoing research and innovation are supporting the next generation of turbine technology.
