VATIS UPDATE Article

Scotrenewables Tidal Power Ltd (STRP), the United Kingdom, has announced its 2-MW SR2000 tidal turbine’s performance level matched established offshore wind turbines after it generated more than 18 MWh within a continuous 24-hour testing period at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. The SR2000 weighs 550 tonnes (606 U.S. tons) and was deployed from Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd., Northern Ireland.

In May 2016, the turbine began preliminary trials in Belfast Lough before being towed to its grid connection at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal test site. In February, Scotrenewables secured a European Commission (EU) Horizon 2020 grant of €10 million (US$10.63 million) for its Floating Tidal Energy Commercialization (FloTEC) project. The project will build on the information gleaned from testing the SR2000 to develop a mark two prototype of the SR2000 technology.

There will be a significant focus on reducing the levelized cost of energy at every stage of the design, build and demonstration of the SR2000-m2. “The SR2000 is providing invaluable experience and validation of our engineering – both of which are informing the optimization exercise, which we are undertaking within our flagship Horizon 2020 project,” said Jonathan Meason, at Scotrenewables.