Established in 2003, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is the world’s first and leading facility for demonstrating and testing wave and tidal energy converters – technologies that generate electricity by harnessing the power of waves and tidal streams – in the sea.

EMEC is also pioneering the development of a green hydrogen economy and smart local energy systems. EMEC’s hydrogen production plant is located onshore at EMEC’s Caldale site on Eday in close proximity to EMEC’s grid-connected tidal test site at the Fall of Warness.

In 2016, EMEC installed a 0.5 MW rapid response PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) electrolyser in the laydown area adjacent to the substation to produce ‘green’ hydrogen from excess renewable energy produced by tidal energy converters testing at the Fall of Warness and from the 900kw Eday community wind turbine

Partner EMEC was the Coordinator of H2020 funded BIG HIT which created the H2 territory in Orkney (Scotland) by implementing an integrated model of H2 production, storage, transportation and utilisation for heat, power and mobility. This valuable expertise and lessons learned relating to initial consenting, planning, permitting and connection, and the full supply chain, will be directly applied to the H2HEAT project.