First Shetland Tidal Turbine Goes Live

Published Mar 9, 2016 7:00 PM by The Maritime Executive

First power has been exported to the grid from the Shetland Tidal Array project in the in the Bluemull Sound, Scotland.

The Shetland Tidal Array is a joint enterprise between Nova Innovation (Scotland) and ELSA (Belgium). Phase 1 of the array consists of three 100 kW Nova M100 turbines, with more turbines planned in following phases.

Nova expects to deploy the fourth and fifth units of the £3.75 million ($5.3 million) Shetland Tidal Array by 2018.

With the help of Scottish Enterprise, Nova Innovation has delivered a project with over 80 percent Scottish supply chain content, and over 25 percent of the spend in Shetland alone.

Olivier Bontems, Managing Director of ELSA, said “Our involvement in the project is driven by two key factors: confidence in the Scottish tidal industry and the generation of clean energy to enable economic growth. It is important for the future of Europe to develop strong partnerships able to successfully generate green power, using the skills and resources that exist across Europe.”

Simon Forrest, Managing Director of Nova Innovation, said: “Tidal energy has the potential to provide nearly eight percent of European electricity demand. This milestone is an important step towards achieving this goal.”