 The next item of business is members' business debate on motion 13815, in the name of Liam McArthur, on Scotland's marine energy industry has potential to grow. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. May I ask those who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now? I call on Liam McArthur to open the debate for around seven minutes, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Back in February 2015, I led a similar debate to this one on the future of Scotland's wave energy industry. At the time, we were ruling from the sudden demise of Palamis in aquamarine power and what appeared to be a crisis of confidence and even existential threat to the future of marine renewables. I took the opportunity to remind the chamber during that debate of the many reasons to be proud of what we had already achieved, including world firsts and world onlys, and confident about what could be achieved in the future. I called for bravery, vision and commitment from ministers and politicians north and south of the border. That is a call that I repeat here this afternoon at what Scottish renewables is described as a critical juncture for the marine energy industry in this country. I am very grateful to all those who signed my motion to allow this debate to take place, and I am particularly grateful to colleagues who are at the time to contribute to what I hope is a constructive and productive exchange of views. There are undoubtedly seriously challenges facing the wave and tidal energy sectors, and those should not be underestimated. I will return to this shortly and look at what might be done to mitigate or overcome those challenges. First, it is helpful to remind ourselves of why development of marine renewables matters and why it matters that we see it develop here in Scotland. Scotland, of course, has played a leading role in setting stretch in climate change targets. That has been achieved on a cross-party basis, and as new climate change legislation begins its journey through Parliament, I am confident that we will see the same consensual but ambitious approach taken again. Any future targets will, of course, require the further decarbonisation of our energy system, while focus, quite rightly, will be on the areas of heat and transport where too little progress has been made to date. We also have a way to go when it comes to generation. In that context, a mix of technology, including storage, will be needed, and I believe that wave and tidal energy have an important role to play in that future energy mix, helping to displace carbon generation from the grid. That belief stems from a view that we should be playing to our strengths, and marine renewables certainly does that. It plays to the strengths of our natural resources. Scotland is home to 25 per cent of Europe's tidal stream and 10 per cent of its wave resource. It plays to the strengths of our academic research base. Our universities are genuinely world leading in the expertise that they have developed over the years. For me, Harriet Watt university exemplifies that, and I say that as a Edinburgh university graduate myself. I will be hosting a shameless plug for the reception on 3 October, which will showcase Harriet Watt's interdisciplinary work on the blue economy, on how we balance the different, sometimes competing uses of our marine environment in sustainable ways. Through its strongness campus in Orkney, which hosts the international centre for island technology, Harriet Watt has been in the vanguard on marine renewables. We have recently taken a lead on how green energy systems are managed, including crucially the use to which that energy is put. All our universities have contributed to our other great strengths, namely the skills and expertise within the supply chain. Again, ICT provides a perfect illustration of that, producing graduates at the forefront of Scott renewables achievements, a company whose tidal stream turbine recently clocked up over three gigawatt hours of renewable electricity in the first year of testing at the European Marine Energy Centre. Indeed, EMEC itself is a further example of where Scotland and Orkney has taken a global lead in marine renewables, offering the means for developers to test their devices at scale and in a real-life environment. Those key strengths in research, supply chain and natural resources should give us cause for optimism—optimism about realising our climate change ambitions. Optimism, too, about the potential job and wealth-creating opportunities, not least through exporting products and services internationally. The offshore renewable energy catapult recently published a report underscoring that potential and reinforcing the fact that the economic benefits could and should be felt most significantly in coastal and island communities. However, that optimism must be tempered by a recognition of the challenges facing both our wave and tidal industries. As Scottish Renewables pointed out in its briefing, there is currently an absence of policy certainty in viable routes to market for many wave and tidal technologies. In the case of wave energy, we have obviously seen a retreat back into the lab and a move away from funding for specific companies and arrays. Sensibly wave energy Scotland is attempting to support R&D that will benefit all developers and avoid cost duplication of effort. That serves to illustrate that we are talking about technologies that are still at the innovation phase. Even tidal energy projects, currently much further along the road in their development, fall into this category. Scottish Renewables argued that tidal stream is on the brink of developing from pre-commercial to fully commercial arrays, but cost reduction is still needed. We need to see that reflected in the support that is made available, particularly from the UK Government. I will not repeat the criticisms that I and others have made of the UK Government's seeming ambivalence to renewables since 2015 in contrast to the strong support provided by my Liberal Democrat colleague, Davey, during his period as energy secretary. However, inviting tidal stream projects to bid against offshore wind for contracts for difference makes no sense. Both may constitute marine renewable developments but only in the broadest sense. A competitive mismatch on this scale simply risks seeing tidal developments throttled at birth. A much better approach would be to challenge tidal and in due course wave developers to bid against other technologies, including storage, in an innovation category. That would also chime, I think, with the UK Government's stated and welcome commitment in its industrial strategy to promoting innovation. I have hopefully managed to persuade colleagues on the Conservative benches about the merits of such an approach and that they will now agree to join in making representations to the UK Government along those lines. From our previous discussions on this topic, I know that the minister shares this view, but I would also encourage him to look at what more the Scottish Government can be doing to incentivise innovation in ways that help to bring the commercial deployment of marine renewables closer to reality. Deputy Presiding Officer, let me repeat what I said earlier. The development of marine renewables plays to our competitive strengths, our natural resources, our research and industrial skills and the world lead that we have already established. It provides an opportunity to create jobs and wealth, including in communities such as the one that I represent. It is part of the mix of technologies that will be needed if we are to meet our challenging climate change targets. On that basis, as was the debate in 2015 and I very much look forward to the contributions from others and the minister, I hope that we can send out a strong decisive message from this Parliament about our collective determination to stay the course when it comes to waving tidal energy. Thank you very much. We move to the open debate and speeches of up to four minutes, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I would like to thank Liam McArthur for bringing this important topic to the debating chamber. I note members to my register of interests regarding renewable energy. As we all know, renewable energy is the future. It is the way forward to protect our environment whilst enabling our society to continue. Scottish Conservatives recognise that Scotland must maintain its lead in developing renewable energy technologies, including wave and tidal stream. As an MSP from the north-east of Scotland, I must mention how delighted I have been to see the recent opening of a European offshore wind deployment centre off the coast of Aberdeen by Wattenfell, a feat of engineering, innovation and technology that will produce enough electricity to meet the annual power demand of 80,000 British households. Offshore developments such as that have an important role to play in diversifying the energy mix, as well as the decarbonisation of energy. We all agree that there must be a mix of technologies to meet Scotland's energy needs and climate change commitments. However, the Scottish Conservatives are keen to see an evidence-based approach to the mix of renewables across Scotland. It is clear from the ORE catapult report that the tidal stream industry brings many benefits to not only the job market in Scotland but the wider UK economy also. We support research and development in organisations that are involved in emerging renewable technologies, particularly tidal, to secure a viable route to market. I am sure that members across the chamber will agree that it needs to be done in a way that respects biodiversity and protects seabirds, marine mammals, fish and the marine environment. Despite the Scottish National Party Government stating that it wishes to support marine and tidal energy, it has still not awarded a £10 million prize for innovation that was set up a decade ago in 2008. On the point of the Salter prize, would the member accept that the withdrawal of the 100 megawatts of guaranteed 6 CFD pot money for the marine energy sector has been one of the key factors as to why no developer or no technology has managed to achieve commercial scale as yet and to satisfy the conditions of the Salter prize? Alexander Burnett said that since 2010 the UK Government has allocated over 90 million of grant funding to waive tidal stream technology, so I do not think that we will take lessons that we have not been supporting in the industry. Back to the Salter prize, in 2008, the former First Minister, Alex Salmond, launched the Salter prize in a bid to drive marine energy to generate enough electrical output commercially for at least two years in Scottish waters. To this day, the award has not been handed out with no light at the end of the tunnel. The prize has been unable to attract a sufficient number of candidates, despite Nicola Sturgeon insisting on redrawing the criteria to redress the issue. In the meantime, two major competitors have gone bust. The scheme remains under review, with experts, civil servants and the industry in disagreement over relaunch and its cost. With members of the expert committee overseeing the challenge, having to ask for up-to-date analysis of the marine energy industry to inform their deliberations, it is unclear why Nicola Sturgeon is not willing to find an outcome that benefits the sector, rather than leaving it in limbo. I know that my fellow member, Liam McArthur, has spoken about this before, and we join him in his calls for the SNP Government to either drop the prize or finally deliver for renewables. The Scottish Conservatives remain committed to low-carbon and the mix of renewables, but we are using an evidence-based approach that does not hinder any area of development. We will continue to work with members across the chamber to ensure a greener energy system. Are we all quiet now? Have David Torrance followed by Lewis MacDonald? Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank Liam McArthur for bringing this motion to Parliament today, and for raising the profile of tidal and wave energy and the benefits that it has on our environment, our local economies and our wider national economy. I would like to start by looking at the importance of these types of renewables to our future. Renewables are absolutely vital to our drastically reducing our carbon footprint. As we move away from using fossil fuels, tidal and wave energy are key to fulfilling and maintaining our nation's energy requirements. If we do not properly utilise the renewable sector that we have, we will simply be unable to continue to sustain the energy usage that we currently enjoy. Furthermore, in order for us to remain as world leaders in this sector, we must continue to invest in both research and development relating to the wave and tidal energy and the construction of wave and tidal power stations. The Scottish Government has an outstanding record in delivering investment through the Wave Energy Scotland, which was requested before 2014, for the development of wave energy technology in Scotland. Conversely, whilst we in Scotland are investing, UK Government is more focused on nuclear energy and in fact is backtracking on investments that it promised in the tidal energy field. UK Government has rejected the plans for a Swansea tidal lagoon, which would have been the world's first tidal lagoon power station should have went ahead. It would have preferred the UK to the top of the league in the world-leading industry. We cannot leave it to UK Government to take Scotland forward in tidal stream and wave energy industries. We are moving on to look at the economic impacts of investing in these renewables. According to a report by offshore renewable energy catapult, wave energy could contribute £4 billion to the UK economy and 8,100 jobs by 2040. Tidal energy could contribute £1.4 billion and 22,600 jobs. That is a community total of £5.4 billion and 30,700 jobs that could be brought into the UK, particularly Scotland, Wales and the south-west of England, whilst preserving our environment and becoming a world leader. Scotland alone has 25 per cent of all Europe's tidal resources, and if enough research and development was conducted, we could become a major world player and exporting green clean energy and its valuable technology to the global market. Our tidal fabrication of bi-fabris is better known, which is based on my constituency, built by the oyster wave energy converter, better known as the oyster 800 tidal device. The device was located in the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney Islands. EMAC is the first and only centre of its kind in the world to provide developers of both wave and tidal energy converters with a purpose-built accredited open-sea testing facility. EMAC is a not-for-profit company. To date, around £34 million has been invested by the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise of Carbon Trust, the UK Government of Scottish Enterprise, the European Union and Orkney Islands Council. This has ensured that Scotland retains a leading role in the development of marine energy, and through this investment has been able to award 84 contracts and has been involved with more than 177 separate organisations across 13 different countries. To conclude, Presiding Officer, I would once again like to thank Liam McArthur for securing us with a debate. I hope to see tidal and wave energy sectors continue to grow from strength to strength, as they will have an important part to play in the renewable sector, and our targets have 100 per cent of electricity generation coming from the renewable sector. Paul Lewis MacDonald, to be followed by Matt Ruskell. Thank you very much, and I too congratulate Liam McArthur on securing another debate on marine energy. His persistence is to his credit, and much the same could be said for many of those involved in the sector itself. Such persistence and optimism are well founded. They are based, first of all, on the far-sighted decision back in 2003 to establish the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, with backing not just from Europe but also from ministers, both here and at Westminster, from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, as we have heard and from Orkney Islands Council. Emech did not so much address a market failure as represent a market intervention, seeking to stimulate a potential new energy industry in which Orkney and Scotland and the UK could aim to achieve first mover advantage. Up to a point that it has proved to be, as Scottish renewables pointed out in their briefing this week, more wave-entitled devices have been developed in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland than all the rest of the world put together. Emech takes a lot of credit for that enterprise approach. It is only right to acknowledge that the last 15 years have seen ups and downs for marine energy. There have been false dawns and disappointments, as well as exciting innovations and technological breakthroughs. Perhaps premature talk of a marine energy boom a decade ago did the sector no real favours. However, the hard work has gone on nonetheless. Alexander Burnett mentioned Wattenfall. Just as marine energy innovation was getting under way in Orkney, a parallel development was taking place in the north-east. The Aberdeen renewable energy group got up and running in 2002 and it soon identified an offshore wind farm in Aberdeen Bay as one of its central ambitions. That seemed just as challenging at the time as achieving commercial viability for wave or tidal energy in Scotland's islands. After 15 years of hard work and ups and downs, it was great to see many veterans of Arag sail out of Aberdeen aboard a Northlink ferry for the official opening of the Aberdeen Bay wind farm by Magnus Hall, the chief executive of Wattenfall and by the First Minister. That event proved that a vision for offshore renewable energy can be delivered if the commitment is there and the right commercial developer comes forward to invest in the right project at the right time. Aberdeen Bay now boasts the world's biggest wind turbines. Like Emich, the project has benefited from support, financial or otherwise, from both local and national government and from Europe. Where Orkney boasts the European Marine Energy Centre, Aberdeen is now home to the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, and in addition there are innovative new technologies also being pioneered off the coasts of both Buckingham and Cincardinshire. The very success of offshore wind is part of the challenge for wave and tidal energy. Wind developers have had the costs of building and installing turbines in recent years. That means that, in spite of the good work in driving down costs that have already been achieved in wave and tidal, they have become relatively less competitive in the short term in spite of their best efforts. However, Scottish Renewables also pointed out that ancillary benefit of offshore wind deployment is a reduced cost of capital for the wave and tidal sector, too, and it is precisely access to capital that is needed now for tidal energy in particular to move to the next phase. Liam McArthur talked about UK Government support needing to recognise that these are not yet commercially mature technologies, and I think that that is absolutely right. However, tidal turbines are in the water producing power. Wave has lost some momentum in the last couple of years, but with the right technical progress, it can move forward, too. Unlike offshore wind in Aberdeen Bay, marine energy in Orkney and across Scotland has huge potential. With continuing persistence and backing from investors and from government at every level, it can deliver another step change for renewable energy. If it does so, I think that we will be able to celebrate even more progress the next time we come to have the debate. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank Liam McArthur for bringing forward the debate and for being one of the Parliament's key champions on renewable energy. I first met him at a marine energy conference over a decade ago as I was heading out of the Parliament and he was getting his feet under the table for the first time. During the last decade, we have witnessed many ups and downs in the sector. Ocadian images of sea snakes, oysters and all manner of sub-sea turbines have graced our TV news programmes, but the routes to market and full commercialisation have often been played with financial risk and uncertainty, caused largely by subsidy regimes that have failed to support our future energy needs. The opportunity still remains. Scotland still has one quarter of Europe's tidal resource and a tenth of its wave resource. That is not going anywhere, but the real prize, as ever, is to fuse the academic and industry expertise with great testbeds and a pipeline of finance to take projects from small-scale arrays right the way through to fully commercialise technology. The sector has struggled to get to commercialisation because there is a circular problem here. Small projects struggle to attract finance because of the high-fix costs, and yet those small projects are the very ones that are needed to build the confidence to secure the financial support for the larger, commercially viable projects. The story and the solutions are, of course, familiar. When the Burger Hill test wind turbines were spinning in Orkney in the 1980s, the Danish Government stuck the best part of a billion pounds into the onshore wind sector and sucked most of the expertise into Denmark, where the turbine manufacturers could also sell their kit. Denmark was open for business while the UK was shut. Of course, it was not always like that with our industrial strategy. We used to be proud of our companies and were not afraid to put the best part of a billion pounds into Rolls Royce in the 1970s, a move that enabled them to develop engines that went on to provide the backbone of a £7.4 billion global business. However, private investors need to see leadership from government and certainty that policy is not going to change from year to year. The demise of the renewable obligation has been largely disastrous. Marine energy is unfairly being asked to compete with offshore wind technology, which is 20 years ahead and has had the time to evolve and deliver substantial cost reduction. Our renewable energies should not be forced to compete with each other through contracts for difference because we need an energy mix that can develop over time, bringing in technologies that complement each other, harvesting different sources of renewable energy. That is why the Westminster Government must bring in a ring-fenced CFD from Marine, because it is important to back the winners and the proven technology that is cost-effective, but not to give up on an entire source of energy that is just sitting there, untapped in our oceans. The prize is great. The BVG study for Orcatapol shows that 8,100 direct new jobs could be grown from our industrial heartlands in Fife right the way to the Northern Isles. Our great academic institutions such as St Andrews and Harriet What universities are playing a role and could play a greater role going forward as well, driving the research that can make this industry both cost-effective and environmentally benign. However, those prizes are not won simply with the dead hand of the market at the tiller. It needs the leadership of a UK Government prepared to work hand in hand with the Scottish Government and Industry, albeit sadly without the financial support of European Union structural funds. The economic prize is great. The imperative of climate change and energy security is unavoidable. We must deliver the opportunity of a vibrant marine energy sector in Scotland. The last of the open debate contributions is from Jamie Halcro Johnston. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I remind members of my register of interests? Can I firstly congratulate my fellow Orcadian Liam McArthur on securing today's members' debate on a subject that is of such importance to our islands, but also to my wider highlands and islands region? We have already heard a number of very interesting and thoughtful contributions from around this chamber. As well as hearing some of the details of projects taking place in the waters of the Northern Isles. Just earlier this week, I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel at the Orkney Renewable Energy Forum event in Stromnes with Liam McArthur and also Robert Leslie, who was representing the SNP, but also works for Thor and Orkney Housing Association. What became very clear was not just the opportunities that present themselves in the islands, but also the enthusiasm of local people and the organisations and the good work of bodies, such as EMEC. That was highlighted by calls from certainly some people there of energy tourism and renewables tourism as a potential way of dealing with the interests and renewables from the island and also wider abroad, too. It is no secret that some of the sectors of the highlands and islands economy have waxed and waned across recent decades. As we look at the growing renewable energy industry in the region with both the sense of pride and its current success, we also have to look with a sense of hope for the future. What we now speak of in terms of projects have the potential to be in the industrial successes of the future, providing the clean and renewable energy to support our economy. It is welcome particularly that the UK industrial strategy identified one of our main national priorities as clean growth. That was expanded on through the UK Government's recent clean growth strategy. Clean and sustainable economic growth will be of increasing international importance as countries around the world look towards addressing their international commitments on climate change and decarbonisation. Scotland having a leading role in the development of emergent technologies can have the benefits felt around the world while securing our own domestic energy supply at home. However, while considering the global context, there is a much more local dimension that is keenly felt in communities such as the Northern Isles. One area of repeated concern is how renewables benefit local supply chains and provide a long-term basis for training and skills development within the communities that they are deployed in. Many members will have heard complaints about the need to import materials and expertise in the wind energy sector. New technologies, however, are an opportunity to get things right. That follows on from what Mark Ruskell was talking about. There are benefits not just to the immediate creation of jobs but in building a labour market skilled in technology-based professions. There are also undoubtedly local challenges to be overcome. In Scotland, those are primarily geographical. Transmission remains an issue and is, for quite apparent reasons, felt most keenly on the islands. We know that Ofgem is currently examining the needs case for a new Orkney interconnector, which has the potential to provide enormous boost to the industry locally. Overcoming those barriers to success is rightly an area where Governments should co-operate, and the ability of the UK and Scottish Governments, as well as local authorities to work together, will be vital in making real progress. It is also positive to reflect on some of the achievements of the energy sector itself. In recent years, we have seen a considerable drop in the cost of the number of renewable technologies as they move from being emergent to established. As a result, we see clean energy that can compete on price, lowering costs for businesses and individuals. The motion before us mentions some of the UK-level policy decisions around tidal energy. I understand that, in the interests of Orkney, we have a good level of interaction with the UK Government ministers, both in the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Scottish Office. Both ministers recently visited Orkney. There has, of course, been real progress on island on shore wind and a renewed focus on new offshore wind as part of the industrial strategy. In many cases, renewable technologies are demonstrating the sort of innovation that we want to see across the industry, and that should be encouraged and supported. Here in Scotland, we have a range of pioneering examples of projects that have a record of development, collaboration and delivery, all while providing benefits to their communities and to the wider economy. Those attributes will undoubtedly be key to building up Scotland as a global centre for renewables in years to come. My region, the Highlands and Islands, and my home county of Orkney, in particular, continue to play a leading role in developing and making renewables of the future. I call Paul Wheelhouse to respond to the debate on behalf of the Government around seven minutes, please, minister. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I, too, like others, want to thank Liam McArthur for securing this debate and, indeed, for the wider members of the chamber for contributions this lunchtime. I share Liam McArthur's view that a strong, decisive message being sent to UK ministers and, indeed, to the sector to show our support for the sector is a very welcome outcome from today's debate. There is, of course, a long history of support from marine energy in the Scottish Parliament. Of course, I would argue that the Scottish Government, as David Torrance argued, has a strong track record of support for the sector, while support has perhaps not been so robust elsewhere. We are a maritime nation, and much of Scotland's influence on the world is built on our scientific and engineering heritage. One of the ways that legacy continues is through our approach to the technologies that will power this century and, indeed, beyond. So, as others have indicated today, Scotland is home to the world's leading wave and tidal test centre, the European Marine Energy Centre and Mr McArthur's beautiful constituency, where more devices are being tested than anywhere else in the world, and Lewis MacDonald is absolutely right about that. Indeed, the world's largest tidalary, the major energy, in the Pelin Firth, ultimately may expand to up to close to 400 megawatts in scale, and scale is a key issue that will turn to later. We have to date invested ourselves as the Scottish Government £23 million in that project to get it to the stage that it is at. The world's most powerful 2 megawatt tidal stream turbine, the Scott Renewables SR 2000 device, is a point of pride, as has been said by Liam McArthur, as generated three gigawatt hours of energy so far. The world's largest wave energy technology programme, Wave Energy Scotland, which has to date funded 84 projects and invested £30 million of public support and involving 177 organisations. Those are all great successes. Those achievements and others can be attributed in no small part to the consistent and committed support from the Scottish Government and our enterprise agencies, but most of all to the passion, expertise, investment and innovation of the young industry. I believe that we all share the view that has such huge potential domestically and, indeed, in export markets. Despite those successes, the path to commercialisation remains a key challenge for the marine energy industry, despite the clear potential of the industry to generate economic growth. The challenge of building a large-scale homegrown success story has, needlessly, in my view, been made more difficult by the UK Government's decision to remove a ring fence substitute for marine energy. We need to be clear about that. The former Prime Minister, David Cameron, promised a ring-fenced 100 megawatts of CFD funding for marine energy, and that was, unfortunately, reneged on when there was a change of Prime Minister and Theresa May's Government came in. That was removed in December of 2016. We know that the UK and Scotland in particular has world-leading strengths in wavel tidal energy, and Liam McArthur encapsulated very well the three issues of the academic base, the natural resource and the supply chain that we already have. I know that there are a number of hundreds of jobs in Orkney Islands that already depend on the R&D activity around marine energy. We know that there is a global demand for those technologies, too, particularly if we think of the opportunities in small island states and areas such as the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines, where this would be an ideal technology to deliver sustainable energy for island communities and, indeed, at home in our islands. As the offshore renewable energy catapult has demonstrated clearly, and this was referenced by David Torrance and other members, there is great potential for cost reduction and scale is critical here, because Lewis MacDonald mentioned offshore wind and he is quite right. The capital cost is half of investment in offshore wind and the levelised cost has come down substantially. That has been achieved through manufacturing economies of scale and increasing large turbines, yes of course, but also manufacturing volumes going up as we have seen with solar and onshore wind as well. We need to get commercial scale projects in wave and tidal energy to make that happen here, too. As David Torrance and others have indicated, significant job numbers potentially by 2040, certainly 8100, the catapult has estimated for 2040 in the wave energy sector, and potentially 4,000 in the tidal steam sector by 2030, 10 years earlier. What the sector needs now is a route to market to enable commercial scale projects such as the later phases of Magen 2 built out. As Baze was unwilling to do so, I have convened senior stakeholders from across the wave and tidal sectors, as well as the relevant Scottish UK and European trade associations, to consider this issue. The key aim of the Scottish Government's Scottish Marine Energy Industry working group, which is referenced in Mr MacArthur's motion, is to ensure that the sector speaks with one voice, presents a consistent message about its impressive achievements to date, its value to the energy system, the environment and the economy, and the support that it needs to achieve its full potential. That group is now halfway through the scheduled programme of meetings, but I will make it clear that it is still required and happy to keep that group going beyond the scheduled length of its duration. However, the group has discussed recent developments and concerns across the sector with a particular focus on finance issues and important parallels with the offshore wind sector that Lewis MacDonald referenced and our oil and gas sectors in the way that the supply chain operates. The work that is under way to develop the revenue support case and cost reduction pathway that Mr MacArthur calls for in his motion. I look forward to working—I certainly will. Liam McArthur I am very grateful to the minister for taking an intervention. I also should probably declare my interests as an in receipt of feed-in tariffs and RHI support. In relation to that financial support that he is talking about, I know that he shares the view that an innovation pot in terms of providing finance may be a route forward. Is he—can he update the Parliament on any discussions that he has had with UK ministers about that proposal? Paul Wheelhouse Thank you, Presiding Officer. We certainly are keen to support innovation. As I said, we are directly funding already a number of projects, whether through Wave Energy Scotland or directly in the case of Imagen and support for other important companies like Nova Innovation, who have developed the Blue Mole sound array. We will continue to engage in this. It is indeed one of the issues that is going to feature in the discussions of the working group around how we can support the industry. We are restricted in how we can directly support the generation of power itself, so Liam McArthur is quite right. Innovation is one of the areas where the Scottish Government can support technology. I am looking for integrated projects through the Low Carbon Innovation Fund and other routes. We can try and see if we can make more use of the Government's leverage in terms of R&D to support the sector. I look forward to working with the group in the coming months, given the very useful dialogue that we have had to date. I will respond to some of the comments that were made in the excellent debate that we have had today, if I may, Presiding Officer. Certainly, in regards to the points that were made early on by Mr Burnett, I take his point about the Salter prize. We are all disappointed that that has not been awarded yet, but I would ask him to reflect on the point that the withdrawal of the 100 megawatts of CFD and Minima has had a key role to play in preventing projects getting to that commercial scale and therefore capitalising on the Salter prize. I do believe that that is something that, hopefully, we can share as an aspiration. Lewis MacDonald referenced the ups and downs of the industries. He is quite right. There have been a number of those. Clearly, in any new technology, there is a valley of death phenomenon. What we need is to have some light of the tunnel of mixing my metaphors here and have an opportunity for a commercial scale development so that technologists can see that there is an opportunity, having gone through that early stage pre-commercial phase, that there is a commercial route for them. That is what is lacking at the moment. Indeed, we can learn a lot from the development of offshore wind. Unfortunately, as Mark Ruskell very important referenced, we no longer have access to rocks and the ability for Scottish ministers to have rocks that reference the innovative nature of the technology. That is a matter of great regret. We continue to press UK Government to provide recognition of the innovative nature of those technologies and to provide them with their support. I would like to say a little bit if I may. I have overstayed my welcome on the amount of time, Presiding Officer, so I will move to conclude if that would be acceptable to you. Just the reference members to see the number of references in the energy strategy to the deployment of marine energy. In closing, I would like to say that we have made many achievements in Scotland's pioneering wave and tidal sectors. I would like to close by mentioning just a few, if I may briefly, Presiding Officer developments that are relevant to the discussion that we have had. First, the EU-funded NECI programme has nothing to do with the monster in Loch Ness, but everything to do with North Sea solutions for corrosion and energy. Completed a call for applications recently and three companies were successful in the call, Cymic, Atlantis, EMEC and SSE. NECI aims to produce business cases for demonstration projects in the North Sea and a detailed value chain for corrosion across the partners. To look at the lifecycle costs and keep the costs down. Scottish Enterprise has now proved funding for Scottish partners in the last of six transnational projects that are selected by Ocean Energy E-Renet co-fund. The total SSE grant for the six projects—don't worry to the office there, I will pass this note to you—the total SSE grant for six projects is £2.8 million. The total R&D spend, including companies and other funding organisations for those projects, will be around €15 million. Projects will start during the course of this month. Finally, I am delighted that Edinburgh is hosting the sixth ocean energy Europe conference on 31 October. Having addressed the fifth conference and not, I know that this is a prestigious and growing international event that reflects the strong interest internationally in the sector. It is therefore an excellent opportunity to showcase Scotland's marine energy strengths, ambition and appetite to collaborate with our international partners. I look forward to welcoming delegates to Edinburgh and I would ask all year that you look to support the promotion of Scotland's marine achievements during the course of the two-day event. I would say to UK ministers who may be watching that it would be a great opportunity to announce some stronger support for what is potentially a hugely significant sector, not just for Scotland but for the world. Thank you very much. That concludes the debate, and the meeting is suspended until 2.30 pm.