Scotrenewables Tidal Power Ltd. reports its SR2000 floating tidal turbine deployed for testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland, achieved its rated 2 MW export capacity on April 12.
Scotrenewables said the SR2000 reached its fully-rated power at EMEC’s Lashy Sound after undergoing a phased testing program that began after the unit was deployed in December 2015.
The unit is more than 60 meters (200 feet) long and weighs more than 500 metric tons.
In March, the user selection board of the US$11.8 million Funding Ocean Renewable Energy through Strategic European Action (FORESEA) project awarded "Recommendations for Support” to 15 offshore renewable energy technologies. Scotrenewables, one of the 15 recipients, received funding from FORESEA via EMEC to test its SR2000.
In 2013, Switzerland-based engineering company, ABB, invested $12 million in Scotrenewables after previously providing funding for the SR2000. HydroWorld.com reported in December 2012 ABB announced it invested $8.12 million in Scotrnewables, alongside an additional $6.24 million from Fred Olsen and Total S.A.
Andrew Scott, Scotrenewables chief executive officer, said: "We are tremendously excited to have the SR2000 demonstrating the performance and cost advantages of our floating tidal technology, in line with forecasts, whilst delivering new benchmarks within the tidal sector. This performance resets the bar for the costs of delivering tidal power. Achieving this industry milestone is a goal the team at Scotrenewables have worked tirelessly towards for a long time — the credit lies with them for these fantastic achievements.”
Neil Kermode, EMEC managing director said, "Everybody at EMEC offers their congratulations to Scotrenewables in reaching peak power on the SR2000. This milestone is testament to years of hard work and dedication shown by the Scotrenewables team. It further demonstrates that through dogged, unrelenting innovation tidal energy is getting ever closer to becoming part of our carbon free energy mix.”
Scotrenewables said it is focused on building up generation on the SR2000 during the immediate future and demonstrating its power performance in parallel with the unit’s unique low operational costs.
(www.renewableenergyworld.com)
