World's Most Powerful Tidal Turbine Hits Peak Power

The world’s most powerful tidal turbine, developed and manufactured by Scotrenewables Tidal Power, has reached full rated power at the European Marine Energy Centre, Orkney, Scotland.

The SR2000 turbine was commissioned last year. Following energization, the 500-ton floating tidal turbine has been exporting power to the local Orkney grid. The turbine has been undergoing a phased testing program leading to full, 2MW rated export capacity being achieved on April 12.

The company is continuing to refine the system, and a lower cost SR2000 model is expected to be rolled out as a commercial offering in 2018. 

The SR2000 has a 20-year design life and can be installed in water depths of 25 meters (80 feet) or more. It can be deployed with a range of anchoring systems to suit most seabed types.

The hull is 64 meters (210 feet) long with a maximum diameter of 3.8 meters (12.5 feet). Rotor diameter is 16 meters (52 feet). With a transport draught of six meters and turret-style single point mooring system, all installation, operation and maintenance can be carried out with low cost, multi-cat type work vessels.

The SR2000 rotors and two 1MW power take off systems have been optimized for fast tidal current regions, such as those of Scotland, Northern France and Canada. However, Scotrenewables says the system can be readily optimized to suit lower tidal speeds.

Countries that possess significant tidal energy resources within their territorial waters include the U.K., France, Canada, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and many others. Independent estimates of the technically extractable global tidal resource predict up to 160 TWh of power generation per year.

Founder and Director, Barry Johnston, said: “After developing the initial concept more than a decade ago, it’s fantastic to now see the latest evolution of the tidal turbine proving its low cost power generation capability onsite connected to the U.K. national grid.”