The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) has successfully recovered its novel Integrated Monitoring Pod following months of transmitting real-time data feeds from the seabed at the Fall of Warness tidal energy test site in Orkney, Scotland.

The pre-commercial prototype is connected to the shore via a subsea cable to facilitate 24/7 real-time data collection, and has been delivering live data feeds back to EMEC which can be used by marine energy developers using the site.

The ongoing project is receiving funding from the Scottish Government via the Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund (MRCF), which is managed by the Carbon Trust.

The pod is set up as a plug-and-play prototype with the ability to install additional sensors as required, with future development focused on supporting data collection at commercial marine energy array projects.

EMEC will now carry out further inspections and enhancements of the pod prior to redeployment in spring 2016, as well as data analysis that has been gathered.