Clean Energy for Scotland

There’s more good news for Scotland and its renewable energy sector; it’s recently been reported that a tidal energy scheme in the Pentland Firth has the potential to provide enough power to cover almost half of Scotland's electricity needs.

Engineers from Cambridge and Oxford universities have discovered that the firth, between Orkney and the Scottish mainland, has some of the UK’s fastest tidal currents, and estimate that if turbines were placed in the water there it could generate up to 1.9GW (gigawatts) of clean energy; equal to 43 per cent of Scotland’s average electricity consumption needs.

Turbines would need to be located across the entire width of the channel to fully exploit it, something that we at t ward shipping are glad to hear, as our work with the wind turbine industry puts us in the ideal position to be able to get involved with exciting offshore projects like this.

The team who conducted the study have already identified some of the best locations for the turbines, both in terms of their energy producing potential and their impact on the environment – so the project is looking very promising.

Prof Alistair Borthwick from the University of Edinburgh, said that the recent research built on earlier studies, and had analysed interactions between turbines and the tides more closely to come up with the figures. He explained;

"This is a more accurate approach than was used in the early days of tidal stream power assessment, and should be useful in calculating how much power might realistically be recoverable from the Pentland Firth."

The news was welcomed by WWF Scotland, who said that the sooner wind turbines could be deployed, the greater chance Scotland would have to become a world leader in developing the kind of technology needed to turn tidal power into clean, green electricity.

The project will be the first commercial deployment of tidal turbines in Scottish waters. MeyGen, who were given permission to develop the project in September last year,  said the phased project could generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 42,000 homes, and that a second phase could see up to 400 submerged turbines at the site.

Watch this space for more updates on this interesting project; we’ll be taking a great interest in it ourselves.