In 2010, the wind-whipped Orkney Islands north of Great Britain will become a key global testing ground for marine energy.

Ocean-based power systems are already being tested there in Scotland's northern reaches, at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) testing facility. OpenHydro, an Irish company, and the UK's Tidal Generation, Ltd. both have tidal energy conversion tests in the works, but Atlantis Resources Corp. hopes to take the lead in advancing tidal power to commercial scale.

Atlantis Resources, founded in Australia but based in London, is installing its 1-megawatt AK-1000 model turbine underwater at EMEC with a $25 million commitment to see the project through and show it to potential large customers.

With 18-meter rotors, Ak-1000 is as big across as a 5-story building is tall. Yet that doesn't mean Atlantis will treat it with extra care.

CEO Tim Cornelius says that up at Orkney, the AK-1000 will be tested in "one of the harshest environments in the world." That could be a boon to Atlantis and to marine energy in general.

You see, as with wind power and even solar energy, conditions that are intolerable for most humans generally point to abundant natural resources that can be used for large-scale energy production.

Scotland, whose national clean energy targets are separate from London's UK guidelines, is angling toward a goal of generating a quarter of its household energy from renewable sources by 2020.

With marine energy alone, the Edinburgh-based Scottish Executive hopes to power half a million homes a decade from now. Test projects like Atlantis Resources' AK-1000 in the unforgiving Orkney offshore waves could drive Britain to a far greater share of green energy than was previously thought possible.

-Sam Hopkins