The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney will help Qingdao Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM) to develop the first wave and tidal test centre for marine energy converters (MECs) in China.

Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse welcomed the news that Scotland’s world-leading strengths in marine energy were helping to “realise the economic and environmental benefits of marine energy for both Scotland and partners around the world”.

EMEC has more than 15 years’ experience in the design, build and operation of marine-energy test facilities and is now using its knowledge and expertise to help other countries establish their own marine-energy centres.

For the past seven years, EMEC has worked alongside QNLM and the Ocean University of China (OUC), providing support and guidance to create an MEC test centre that will provide a model for how future test facilities will be established in China.

This centre will be located in the Shandong Provence, south of Qingdao near Zhaitang Island, which has “ideal conditions” for testing wave and tidal energy technologies.

Scheduled to be in operation by 2020, the test centre will comprise two offshore facilities — one for wave and one for tidal, and both sharing one onshore sub-station.

Each facility will be connected to Zhaitang Island’s grid via a sub-sea cable with a rated capacity of 200kW.

Oliver Wragg, commercial director at EMEC, said: “This is a big deal for EMEC, but also for the marine sectors in China and Europe. The marine energy opportunity is a global one, and we are ready to work with anyone who is serious about making it happen.

"Since 2003, EMEC has accepted 32 devices from 20 companies in 11 countries for testing at our centre in Orkney; this has allowed us to establish a model that China’s test centre can emulate when setting up its own marine energy test centre.”