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Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

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Re: Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

#3

Post by smackay »

Here's a description of an earlier attempt, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-worlds-firs...

All the press releases and articles describing work in the Pentland Firth are breathlessly optimistic. The environment here is fantastically unkind to marine equipment and at least one previous project (can't recall or find the details) was destroyed in a very short time.

To give you an idea, the current at Duncansby Head at the opposite end of the channel reaches 10 knots.

This stretch of coast is great to visit, especially on a clear day in winter. As it starts to get dark, you can watch about 8 lighthouses on the neighbouring islands switch on and flash their beams across the cold, dark waters.

https://www.nlb.org.uk/lighthouses/duncansby-head/

Disclaimer: Grew up in Wick, 20km to the south.

Re: Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

#4

Post by SEJeff »

smackay wrote: post #3

Here's a description of an earlier attempt, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-worlds-firs... All the press releases and articles describing work in the Pentland Firth are breathlessly optimistic. The environment here is fantastically unkind to marine equipment and at least one previous project (can't recall or find the details) was destroyed in a very short time. To give you an idea, the current at Dun…

What are your thoughts on the project as someone familiar with the area? Good, bad, mixed?

As an outsider, it seems that Scotland is leading the world in offshore wind, which is someone Scottish Engineers could export to many other places. I see it as exciting.

Re: Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

#8

Post by pjc50 »

smackay wrote: post #3

Here's a description of an earlier attempt, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-worlds-firs... All the press releases and articles describing work in the Pentland Firth are breathlessly optimistic. The environment here is fantastically unkind to marine equipment and at least one previous project (can't recall or find the details) was destroyed in a very short time. To give you an idea, the current at Dun…

Inherently a problem - it's a great area for tidal energy because there's so much energy in the water flow. Unfortunately that same energy is very good at smashing things.

Tidal and wave energy has really suffered from intermittent funding problems, such as the bankruptcy of Pelamis (Edinburgh and Orkney)

Re: Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

#9

Post by TooSmugToFail »

cesis wrote: post #2

Apparently this is a 2MW turbine https://simecatlantis.com/2018/09/13/simec-atlantis-energy-u...

Thank you.

One would think that an article about a power generation system would at least provide information about nominal power and expected annual energy output.

Re: Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

#10

Post by simongeist »

cesis wrote: post #2

Apparently this is a 2MW turbine https://simecatlantis.com/2018/09/13/simec-atlantis-energy-u...

Isn't 1,5 - 2MW much the same amount a standard onshore wind turbine would provide? I assume the tidal power generation must have some advantages (e.g. more constant output?)
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