A small-scale medical drone delivery service in Scotland will begin within weeks as the opening gambit of an ambitious programme to help service the offshore wind industry.
Drones will deliver samples and equipment from rural surgeries to a hospital in Dundee before moving on to more ambitious land-to-sea projects, developers say.
The hub of the project is a former airfield on the outskirts of the coastal town of Montrose that is being developed as a centre to support the green energy sector and include Scotland’s first drone port.
The drone programme is planning a second phase of tests this spring to deliver medical supplies to anchored ships right outside the port town.
The project’s ambitions then stretch 27 kilometres out to sea, where Scotland’s largest offshore wind farm, Seagreen, is expected to start producing power later this year.
The programme aims to run a drone around the Seagreen site to demonstrate the potential for drone-based surveys, deliveries and inspections in the wind energy sector.
“We will demonstrate in this project that we can deliver to a ship, we can take off and land at a wind farm and we can fly a sufficient distance from the drone port to the wind farms,” said Richard Stark of DTLX, which is running the Mercury Drone Ports Project.
“The intention then is to do another project that will knit them all together.”
The 114 wind turbines under construction at Seagreen are expected to be fully operational by 2023, supplying 1.1 gigawatts of power — enough for 1.6 million homes.
Scotland is rapidly expanding its offshore wind sector and awarded the development rights in January for the projects, which will supply 25 gigawatts of energy.
Offshore wind projects in the UK currently produce about 10 gigawatts of power.
Mr Stark says the rapid growth of the industry shows the potential for drones to carry out work in a “safer, greener, cheaper” way than traditional deliveries and inspections using helicopters and boats.
The drone technology has already been successfully employed in Norway, where energy company Equinor was behind the world’s first offshore delivery to an oil platform in the North Sea. The four-metre drone flew about 80km to deliver a part for the platform’s lifeboat system.
Shore-to-ship drone deliveries have also been completed in the UK and places like Singapore, Mr Stark says, but the project in Montrose is seeking to build a larger regional operation that will attract developers to test their latest drone technology.
At the launch of the project, Minister for Scotland Iain Stewart said: “Drones have huge potential in Scotland, from connecting health services to remote communities, to helping maintain renewable energy installations, to assisting with Scottish aquaculture and environmental monitoring.”
Analysts say drones will play an increasingly large part in cutting the estimated $8 billion and rising annual cost of wind farm maintenance.
Research by US-based Levitate Capital, which invests in drones and other new transport technology, said that there was a market for about 21,000 drones to inspect the 400,000-plus wind turbines worldwide.
In the long-term, drones will be positioned at wind farms that fly from and return to boxes where they recharge and download information without an operator travelling to the site, it suggested.
Results
Stage seven
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates, in 3:20:24
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 1s
3. Pello Bilbao (ESP) Bahrain-Victorious, at 5s
General Classification
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates, in 25:38:16
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 22s
3. Pello Bilbao (ESP) Bahrain-Victorious, at 48s
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More on animal trafficking
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
if you go
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
If you go:
Getting there:
Flying to Guyana requires first reaching New York with either Emirates or Etihad, then connecting with JetBlue or Caribbean Air at JFK airport. Prices start from around Dh7,000.
Getting around:
Wildlife Worldwide offers a range of Guyana itineraries, such as its small group tour, the 15-day ‘Ultimate Guyana Nature Experience’ which features Georgetown, the Iwokrama Rainforest (one of the world’s four remaining pristine tropical rainforests left in the world), the Amerindian village of Surama and the Rupununi Savannah, known for its giant anteaters and river otters; wildlifeworldwide.com
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Brief scores:
Newcastle United 1
Perez 23'
Wolverhampton Rovers 2
Jota 17', Doherty 90' 4
Red cards: Yedlin 57'
Man of the Match: Diogo Jota (Wolves)
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
