Tidal stream turbine generates more than 3GWh in first year of testing

By Elizabeth Ingram

 

A 2-MW floating tidal stream turbine deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre has generated more than 3 GWh of electricity in its first year of testing.

During 12 months of continuous operation, the SR2000 turbine supplied the equivalent annual electricity demand of about 830 UK households, according to a press release, and at times has been supplying more than 25% of the electricity demand of the nearby Orkney Islands.

“The team at Scotrenewables believes that this, combined with Meygen’s generation of over 8GWh over the past year from four tidal turbines deployed in the Pentland Firth, is convincing evidence of tidal power’s market readiness,” Scotrenewables said.

“The ability to easily access the SR2000 for routine maintenance has been a significant factor in our ability to generate electricity at such levels over the past 12 months, including over winter,” said Andrew Scott, chief executive officer of Scotrenewables Tidal Power. “In addition, accessing the SR2000 using “RIBs” and other similar types of low-cost vessel means that our operating costs and outage times are kept to a minimum.”

The deployed technology is a floating unit housing two 1-MW turbines each connected to a 16-m-diameter rotor. The SR2000 weighs about 600 tons and is 64 m long. It was designed to DNV-GL standards with a 20-year design life. Scotrenewables says this unit can be installed in water depths of more than 25 meters and can be deployed with a range of anchoring systems to suit most seabed types.

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The company plans to start building a 2-MW commercial production unit later this year, with support from the EU’s Horizon 2020 scheme. This unit also will be tested at EMEC before the company “targets sales of the turbine.”