Ministers pulling funding from a wave energy body shows that it may be time to finally admit that we cannot harness the power of the seas, argues Herald columnist Alan Simpson.

In Scotland, you are never far away from the sea, indeed if you’re lucky enough to live by the coast all you need to do is look out of the window.

It has helped shape the country and provide much of it’s prosperity as traders have sailed around the globe for centuries exchanging goods.

The sea has also brought tragedy though, with the fast flowing tides and dark, cold waters frequently claiming the lives of sailors and fishermen.

So it is natural that we looked to the sea to help provide our electricity with offshore windfarms all around the coast providing clean and cheap energy.

Of course, Scotland is also blessed, if you can describe it as that, as being very windy which is also great for drying clothes but no so good playing golf on a links course.

But it has long been thought that the real bonanza will come through harnessing the tides to provide our energy and then export the expertise to other countries with similarly strong tides.

It is all a heady mix and led former First Minister Alex Salmond to declare that Scotland has the potential to become the ‘Saudi Arabia of renewables’.

To be fair he had a point, but Scotland’s green energy ambitions have been thrown into doubt after a flagship wave power firm warned it could collapse following ministers’ decision to pull funding from their own wave energy body.

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Edinburgh-based Mocean Energy says the decision to axe cash for Wave Energy........

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