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Conditions for £10m wave and tidal prize announced

Wave and tidal energy researchers who can create a commercial scale system to exploit Scotland's marine power have been told what they need to do to win the £10 million Saltire Prize.

Speaking at a ceremony in Edinburgh Castle, the awarding committee announced that the prize would go to a team that managed to generate 100 gigawatt hours of electricity over a two-year period.

That amount of energy would be sufficient to power several thousand homes and would contribute to Scotland's target of generating 50 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Dr Anne Glover, Scotlands chief scientific adviser, said: "The Saltire Prize challenge aims to accelerate the rate at which wave and tidal technologies can deliver power output that will represent real commercial opportunity. And make a meaningful contribution to Scotland's ambitious renewable energy and carbon emissions targets."

The competition, which the government claims has attracted interest from as far a field as Japan in Russia, was first announced by first minister Alex Salmond in a speech to the National Geographic Society in Washington.

Mr Salmond has said that he believes Scotland could become the "Saudi Arabia of marine power".

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