The Crown Estate has announced the names of the successful bidders for the world's first commercial wave and tidal leasing round.

The 1.2GW of installed capacity proposed by the wave and tidal energy developers for 2020, 600MW each from wave and tidal, is four times the peak output of Dounreay power station. This is enough electricity to meet the needs of up to three quarters of a million homes.

The developers for Orkney sites are:

Wave:

• SSE Renewables Developments Ltd — 200MW for Costa Head site.
• Aquamarine Power Ltd & SSE Renewables Developments Ltd — 200MW for Brough Head site.
• Scottish Power Renewables UK Ltd — 50MW for Marwick Head site.
• E.ON — 50MW for West Orkney South site.
• E.ON — 50MW for West Orkney Middle South site.

Tidal:

• SSE Renewables Developments (UK) Ltd — 200MW for Westray South site.
• SSE Renewables Holdings (UK) Ltd & OpenHydro Site Development Ltd — 200MW for Cantick Head site.
• Marine Current Turbines Ltd — 100MW for Brough Ness site.

Full details in this week's The Orcadian

Shetland Coastguard were alerted last Friday night, following three reports of orange lights in the sky over Kirkwall.

However, following investigation, a spokesman for the coastguard said Kirkwall police confirmed that the three lights, spotted near Royal Oak Road and the Highland Park Distillery, were Chinese lanterns.

Scapa Flow played host to Orkney’s second commercial ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the weekend.

The two ships which took part in the operation were the Excalibur, which arrived from St Eustatius on Sunday, and the Excelerate, while sailed into the Flow from Salem the following day.

The operation saw the Excelerate transfer 8.440 tonnes of LGN to the fellow Belgium-registered Excalibur.

The operation was the first LNG transfer in Scapa Flow since 2007 - when the Excalibur and the Excelsior completed the world's first commercial ship-to-ship transfer of LNG.

William Sichel.

Orkney’s ultra-distance world record holder William Sichel (56) admits that his participation in the 1,000 Mile World Cup event in Athens, which began on Monday, is a “step into the unknown”.

At midday (UK time) on Monday, a field of 24 athletes, representing 12 nations, toed the line at the race venue, on the site of the former Athens International airport, 14 miles to the south of Athens city.

Runners will have 16 days to complete the challenge.

The last time a 1,000 mile race was held was in 2003, no man completed the distance, although three women managed to.

Orkney Rugby Club's First XV maintained their lead in the Scottish Hydro Caledonia Regional League One with two wins in their double header at the weekend.

The played Stirling University on Saturday, winning comfortably with a scoreline of Stirling University 7, Orkney 48, gaining Orkney a bonus point.

On Sunday they played their twice-postponed match against Crieff and Strathearn, winning with a scoreline of Crieff and Strathearn 5, Orkney 21.

Orkney are unbeaten and lead the league with 76 points. In second place are St Andrews University with 65 points.