The future of marine energy is here now!

Junior Saltire competition finalists are testing their model devices at FloWave today!

Twelve finalist teams selected from more than 200 school teams are today putting their models into the tank at FloWave as part of the Scottish Junior Saltire Competition.

Representing the future of the industry in the UK (and therefore the world!), the teams represent more than 80 schools from all across Scotland – all of whom have gone to significant lengths to introduce the benefits of clean energy from Scotland’s rich ocean resource and get their students fully engaged with the process by participating in the Junior Saltire competition.

The competition itself is led by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and the Scottish Council for Development & Industry (SCDI), with the final stages of testing of the model devices being carried out here at the FloWave Ocean Energy Research facility at the University of Edinburgh.

After a careful selection process the twelve best entries in three age categories spanning both primary and secondary schools were chosen to take their ideas forward and develop a model to test in the FloWave test tank. Those tests are undergoing as this post is being written, and we very much look forward to seeing which of the teams wins through in their particular categories.

“For the team at FloWave this is a great opportunity to take a step back from the serious work of academic research and commercial R&D, and to put something back in terms of developing the marine energy engineers of the future” says FloWave Chief Executive Stuart Brown. “It’s great to see the enthusiasm of the children when they are here, and by that I mean not only in terms of the excitement of having access to this amazing facility, but also in seeing their models under test, working and generating electricity into our measurement systems.  More than that, some of the ideas they are coming up with are not only pretty good, in some cases they are brilliant!” he continues.

 

Finalists at FloWave
Finalists at FloWave
Can't wait to get their model wet!
Can't wait to get their model wet!
The first of 12 devices under test today - good luck!
The first of 12 devices under test today - good luck!