The drive to produce a commercial scale tidal power array took another step forward yesterday, as Scotland's biggest tidal energy developer announced a six week test programme as part of its final push to assess the reliability and performance of its tidal turbine power train.
Testing of Atlantis Resources' 1.5MW tidal turbine - known as the AR1500 - will be undertaken at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth alongside tidal energy researchers Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, the company announced.
The project will use the government-backed Catapult's 3MW power train test rig to simulate the types of forces the turbine will experience during real-life operation.
The system will be the second tidal turbine Atlantis has tested at the National Renewable Energy Centre, following testing of its 1.5MW AR1000 turbine at the same site in 2012. The developers said the testing is crucial to minimise the risk of early complications after the tidal turbines are installed and should help boost investor confidence in the scheme.
"The ability to check the performance characteristics of the turbine, validate the control system, and prove the AR1500's reliability prior to deployment is a critical element in the technology's development lifecycle and will provide the market and investors with value-added confidence," said Luke Murray, design director at Atlantis Resources, in a statement.
The tidal turbine is ultimately set to be deployed at the MeyGen tidal turbine array, located in the Pentland Firth off the Scottish coast, which plans to supply up to 398MW of capacity to the National Grid by 2020.
"The MeyGen project is strategically important, reinforcing the UK's position as a global leader in tidal development, and so I'm very pleased to welcome back Atlantis and to be able to support them in the testing and validation of their next generation tidal turbine," said Tony Quinn, operations director at ORE Catapult, in a statement.
Atlantis recently acquired Scottish Power Renewables tidal portfolio as part of plan to deliver 640MW of tidal power in Scotland by 2022.
Atllantis' announcement followed the news last month that two other flagship tidal energy projects had passed significant milestones towards deployment of commercial-scale demonstration projects, including the installation of Wales' first tidal energy generator.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently noted that smooth deployment of tidal stream power projects such as AR1500 could make 2016 the year tidal energy breaks through as a serious renewable energy option. The analysts also noted the contrast with the wave sector, which encountered uncertainty in the latter part of 2015 after a series of scale-backs, including the bankruptcies of eight leading firms.
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