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Published 22/05/2025 by Ruth Kirkpatrick 3 min read
More than 30 businesses from the Highlands and Islands gathered at All-Energy exhibition and conference 2025 at Glasgow’s SEC 13-14 May. Representing a range of expertise in renewables and low-carbon innovations, the region made a strong impression. In this blog, we catch up with Ruth Kirkpatrick, our area team leader in Orkney, to hear her insights and reflections from the All-Energy 2025.
Orkney has had a strong and visible presence at this major renewables and low carbon event for many years. Our pavilion showcased a diverse range of companies and organisations including Orbital Marine Power, EMEC, Green Marine, Aquatera, Wave Energy Scotland, the West of Orkney Windfarm and, Orkney Islands Council’s Marine Services, among others.
The stand is always popular and this year saw a noticeable increase in footfall. Our businesses were delighted with how productive the show was in terms of securing additional business and interest in their services.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes, visited following her announcement that CorPower Ocean has signed a berth agreement with EMEC – marking a major milestone for the UK’s largest wave energy array. It is planned to build the hull and subsystems in Orkney, creating skilled jobs and bringing business to the local supply chain.
Orkney also featured in the conference programme and the audience was treated to an excellent visual from Orbital Marine Power of their planned 30MW tidal array in the Westray Firth.
We have already benefited economically from wave and tidal R&D in our waters and look forward to seeing the deployment of full-scale commercial arrays that will contribute meaningfully to energy security and a just transition.
HIE recently published a report on regionally transformational opportunities in the Highlands and Islands, which identified a significant pipeline of 28 projects around Orkney in offshore and onshore wind, marine energy, green hydrogen and supporting infrastructure such as the proposed Scapa Deep Water renewables hub. These projects could realise almost £13bn of investment and see more than 800 jobs created.
Local businesses, developers, researchers, academics and public sector partners are working together to ensure that as much benefit as possible from these opportunities is captured for the Orkney economy and that the projects are delivered in a way that benefits our communities and planet.
All Energy offered the opportunity to share knowledge, experience and views and provided an extremely worthwhile opportunity to cement the collaborative working that will ensure that Orkney continues to hold its place at the forefront of this industry.
Read here to hear about insights from Innse Gall (Outer Hebrides) team lead, Kathleen Stewart at All-Energy.
Read here about Andrew Gear from HIE's Shetland team's visit to All-Energy.
Ruth Kirkpatrick is Area Team Leader in Orkney. She has over 30 years’ experience with HIE and has worked on and led many priority projects in community, business, sectoral and infrastructure development.
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In this blog, we catch up with Kathleen Stewart, our area team lead in Innse Gall, to hear her insights and reflections from the All-Energy 2025.
Alistair Dodds, Chair of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, reflects on the HIE Board’s recent visit to Orkney.
