The big push on marine renewables in Orkney is bringing in local companies in key roles. Among them is Green Marine, whose managing director, Jason Schofield, has been one of Scotland’s most successful fishermen.
Jason, who for many years has skippered vessels like the freezer-trawler Norlantean and the Viking Monarch, the largest wetfish trawler in the UK, is now coordinating the movements of a group of specialist vessels providing solutions for developers of wave and tide devices moving machines and materials in Orkney waters.
Orkney’s global role in the new marine renewables industry through the work of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has led to the presence in the islands of some of the world’s leading companies in the field, with generating systems to test. To bring in support ships from outside would be expensive; Jason’s company, Green Marine, is on hand to fill the gap.
It can lift and deploy all types of marine structures. It can carry out maintenance on site. It can tow devices and lift them into the water or out again. It can also transfer people and carry out seabed surveys.
We visited Jason recently in his Stromness office to ask him how the idea for the company had developed.
