Scotland’s longest commercial deep-water berth has been created in Orkney with the completion of a new extension at Hatston Pier.
The 160-metre extension to the existing 225-metre pier will be officially opened next week (April 30) by Neil Kermode, Managing Director of EMEC, the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre.
The £8 million project is a key component in an ambitious ports development strategy, which is underpinning Orkney’s world-leading role in the evolution of technologies that harness energy from waves and tidal currents.
Meanwhile, work is underway on a new 100 metre pier at Copland’s Dock in Stromness.
The £9.2 million project is being supported with £2.5 million in funding from the Scottish Government and £1.815 million from the ERDF. The new pier will support the trialling of technologies at EMEC’s wave test site at Billia Croo as well as commercial marine energy projects in the Pentland Firth and off the west coast of Orkney.
The pier is due to be completed early next year.
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Press Release, April 25, 2013