Scottish-based developers of the world’s leading floating tidal turbine technology, Orbital Marine Power Ltd, successfully launched its 2MW tidal turbine, the Orbital O2, from the Port of Dundee on 22 April.  It will now be towed to the Orkney Islands where it will undergo commissioning before being connected to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) where it will become the world’s most powerful operational tidal turbine.

The turbine has a 74m long hull with twin 1MW power generating nacelles at the end of retractable leg structures designed to give low-cost access to all major components for through life servicing. 10m blades give the O2 more than 600m² of swept area to capture flowing tidal energy. The floating structure is held on station with a four-point mooring system, eliminating the need for permanent seabed structures, and is designed so that installation of the turbine, and all its associated moorings, can be carried out by low-cost work vessels and servicing can be carried out by RIBs.  Click here.

The launch follows from the recent announcement by world-leading marine energy company Nova Innovation that vehicles in Shetland are now fuelled by the power of the sea.  The world’s first ever electric vehicle (EV) charge point, where drivers can ‘fill up’ directly from a tidal energy source, is located at Cullivoe harbour on the shores of Bluemull Sound, on the Shetland island of Yell. Beneath the water, Nova’s tidal turbines have been powering homes and businesses in Shetland, displacing fossil fuelled power generation, for more than five years. The island’s vehicles can now be powered purely by the tide.  Click here.

Nova Innovation’s projects are not confined only to Shetland.  A series of underwater turbines between the isles of Islay and Jura in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, will generate tidal power that will displace fossil fuels used on the islands, and create ‘water of life’ by powering world famed Islay whisky distilleries from the sea.  Click here.  It has also secured a £1.2 million investment from the Welsh Government for its Enlli tidal energy project in north Wales. Click here.