A little bit of renewable news for you – SSE and Aquamarine have announced that they have been granted exclusive development rights to an area of the seabed off the coast of Orkney as part of the world’s first commercial leasing programme for wave and tidal energy generation projects.
The new ‘Oyster‘ devices would have an installed capacity of 200MW, that’s enough energy to power around 190,000 homes. The development area will see several small clusters of the Oyster devices spaced over the Orkney coastline.
The partnership between Aquamarine Power and SSE is part of an agreement between the two companies to develop up to 1GW of Oyster wave farm sites in the UK and Ireland by 2020 – the largest commercial agreement in the wave energy sector to date. This is a pretty exciting step in moving towards producing clean energy harnessing the power from elements that the natural world offers us.
BRING IT ON!
I was blessed with the most amazing weather during my 3 days in Breadalbane.. I couldn’t but help shoot this panorama looking towards Ben Lawers from the South Side of Loch Rannoch. The shape is a little unwieldy but the 3m print width makes up for it if I ever found a need to print it.
back in London for a few days and a chance to render some of the Time Lapse shots.. This was the coldest but one of my favourites.. The shadow is cast by the full moon behind camera and the orange glow is the small town of Killin down the valley..
Loch Lawers by Starlight from Toby Smith on Vimeo.
…and an 8km trek through the snow from Loch Rannoch. The sheer scale of this landscape makes you appreciate the lengths (literally speaking!) at which the water drops to get from the loch down to the hydro plant and it’s hard work walking it in the opposite direction! It’s been a cold dry winter this year so the low water levels leave behind the eerie beauty of petrified trees marked with residue from the salt. And is that a big cat I see..?
On a more sombre note I just wanted to give a quick heads up for a photography auction I am supporting…
On 29th September 2009, an earthquake triggered a tsunami in Samoa, America Samoa and Tonga. The tsunami devastated villages along the southern coast of Samoa, killing 140 people and displacing thousands of others. Oxfam responded in the immediate aftermath but are also working longer term to help individuals rebuild sustainable livelihoods and cope with their personal trauma.
Annabel Cook, freelance picture editor at The Financial Times, was shocked and appalled by the devastation that the tsunami left behind and as a result has decided to help raise money for Oxfam’s Samoan Tsunami Appeal by organising a photography auction. The cause has a very personal appeal for Annabel who has been motivated by her undiscovered Polynesian background – she is half Fijian and has friends and family in Samoa who have all suffered from the disaster.
The auction will take place from 7pm onwards, Tues 9th March at The Financial Times and features work from a number of different fine art photographers and photojournalists (and of course one of my own prints from my ‘Light After Dark’ project).
Please do show your support for this cause by becoming a fan of the auctions Facebook page. For more information about the event please contact Annabel via email [email protected]