Kishorn Port site in NW Highlands to be leased

Trident Energy is to test its PowerPod wave energy generation technology at Kishorn

Energy company Trident Energy has confirmed that it is to lease the Kishorn Port site for sea trials of its prototype electricity generator.

The Essex-based firm is to test its PowerPod co-located wave energy generation technology at the north west highland site.

The test site at Kishorn is exposed to moderate waves which are less extreme than the Atlantic Ocean.

A spokeswoman for the company said the lease was initially for a year.

The Kishorn Port is a 50/50 joint venture between Ferguson Transport (Spean Bridge) Ltd and Leiths (Scotland) Ltd.

Leiths specialises in quarrying, concrete and construction materials while Ferguson Transport is involved with port operations, shipping, stevedoring and transport.

Jonathan Armstrong, Chief Operating Officer of Trident Energy, said: "The site is a legacy from oil and gas construction in the 1970s and offers a substantial, unused deep-water jetty which is exposed to energetic waves from the SW."

Alasdair Ferguson, Director of Kishorn Port Ltd, said: "We see this agreement between KPL and Trident Energy as only the beginning.

"Potential projects and developments on site for the Renewable Energy sector for offshore wind, wave and tidal will be able to utilise the exceptionally deep water, berths, dry dock, quarry and expansive laydown land which Kishorn Port has to offer."

Local MP Charlie Kennedy welcomed the news and said he hoped it would prove a catalyst for future development.

The initial Kishorn site was developed in the 1970s by Howard Doris as a manufacturing and fabrication yard for oil platforms.

At its height 3,000 people were working at the yard.

The wet dock in Loch Kishorn has an almost unlimited depth for construction purposes at 80m (262ft).

It is the former construction site of the Ninian Central Platform, at over 600,000 tonnes still one of the world's largest manmade moveable objects ever.