Scotland's First Tidal Turbine Connected to Grid

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Scotland's drive to become the marine energy capital of the world was bolstered this week as Atlantis Resources Corporation (Singapore) connected the first tidal turbine to the national grid.

The massive, 1,500-tonne AR1000 turbine is located at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off Orkney, and it will remain connected to the grid for the next two years for testing. The turbine is capable of generating enough power for approximately 1,000 homes. Standing 22.5 metres high and boasting a three-blade turbine with a diameter of 18 metres, it is one of the largest turbines in production. Following testing it will be deployed in the massive 400-megawatt (MW) Inner Sound tidal project. A lease for the project was awarded last year by the Crown Estate to MeyGen, a joint venture formed by Atlantic Resources, International Power (LSE:IPR) (London, England) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) (New York).

The Inner Sound lies within the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters strategic area and features some of the strongest tidal waters around Scotland. Upon completion, the project will be capable of powering up to 400,000 homes. In addition to the Inner Sound project, last year saw the Crown Estate award leasing rights to six wave and four tidal projects in the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters, with a combined generating capacity of 1,200 MW. For related news, see March 18, 2010, article - Scotland Awards 1.2 Gigawatts of Marine Energy Projects.

"By connecting a 1-MW single-rotor device in Scottish waters to the national grid, they have achieved something that has never been done before," said Atlantis CEO Tim Cornelius of the project team. "They have overcome a number of considerable challenges in this development programme, fine-tuning the nacelle-retrieval process at the same time. Following a blade manufacturing fault in 2010, we switched suppliers and reverted to standard GRP blades. We also took the opportunity to review the entire tidal power component supply chain in conjunction with our customers and opted to focus on a turbine design that employs only proven and readily accessible components and can therefore be manufactured at scale. We will continue to invest in the AR1000 research and development programme as the supply chain matures, but our customers need commercial reliability and that's what the AR1000 system can give them today."

Neil Kermode, managing director of the European Marine Energy Centre, added: "It is wonderful to see this commercial-scale tidal turbine connect to the grid from Orkney waters. The marine energy industry in Scotland continues to gather pace and is working towards world-leading targets in terms of deployment and generation of renewable energy."

The European Marine Energy Centre is also about to get a new tenant in the shape of the Oyster 800 hydro-electric wave energy converter from Aquamarine Power Limited (Glasgow, Scotland). The new device was recently unveiled by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and will be installed at EMEC later this summer. Oyster 800 will be the first of three devices to be installed at EMEC and will be linked to an onshore hydroelectric plant to form a 2.4-MW array.

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