Developers have been invited by the Crown Estate to apply for licences to develop wave and tidal power installations in the Pentland Firth.
The Crown Estate, which owns the seabed, said that at the close of the registration phase for pre-qualification, 38 companies and consortia had been invited to apply.
Companies will be tendering to take part in the first UK marine power site to be opened up to commercial-scale development.
Rob Hastings, director of the marine estate at the Crown Estate, said: "We are very pleased by the excellent response to this first UK commercial marine energy development opportunity. Scotland has some of the best natural wave and tidal resources in Europe and the Pentland Firth strategic area has been selected with this in mind."
The aim of the project is to generate 700 megawatts of
energy by 2020 in the Firth. At the launch of the process for licensing it was proposed that initial devices could be deployed in 2010/11.
We are preparing to test the Pelamis P2 wave power device at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.
