269 Sunken Turbines To Make Scotland Home To World’s Largest
Tidal Farm
By ARI PHILLIPS
One of scotlands stunning North Atlantic beaches located in
the northwest scottish Highlands.
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
The world’s largest tidal energy project, capable of
powering nearly 175,000 homes in the U.K. with 400 megawatts of power, will
break ground next month in northeast Scotland. Atlantis, majority owner of the
MeyGen project, announced that its flagship project had met all the conditions
required to start drawing down finance through the U.K.’s Renewable Energy
Investment Fund.
The completed project will have 269 sunken turbines,
according to Atlantis, which expects to have about 60 of these installed and
delivering power by 2020.
In the announcement to investors, Atlantis said: “The major
construction and supply contractors to this iconic project have commenced
design, engineering and procurement works in readiness for commencement of
onshore construction at the project site in Caithness in January 2015.”
Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantis, said
that Lockheed Martin’s project-specific 1.5 megawatt turbines were scheduled to
be delivered on time for construction purposes. In November, the MeyGen project
was awarded the first-ever Navigator Award at the International Conference on
Ocean Energy, in recognition of the “project’s significant contribution to
global marine renewable industry.”
Scotland is trying hard to harness all forms of renewable
energy as part of its goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity demand
from renewables by 2020. The wind-rich country is home to around a quarter of
Europe’s total offshore wind capacity. In October, the Scottish Government
approved four huge new offshore wind farms that could produce more than 2.2
gigawatts of power, enough to power 1.4 million homes.
Atlantis is also working on tidal energy projects off the
coast of Canada. The firm was recently awarded a Feed-in Tariff for up to 4.5
megawatts of tidal generation to be deployed at the Fundy Ocean Research Center
for Energy (FORCE) in Nova Scotia, Canada.
“We are delighted that the Nova Scotia Government has chosen
to make this substantial award to Atlantis,” said Cornelius. “Having also
reached financial close on the first phase of our MeyGen project in Scotland,
we are building momentum on our projects around the world, realizing our goal
of bringing cost-effective clean energy to market at commercial scale — on both
sides of the Atlantic.”
However there are still many challenges ahead for the
company and the tidal and wave power industries. Atlantis’ share price dipped
on Friday, with the company saying it “knows of no trading or operational
reason to warrant this change.”
The Scottish government is also struggling to support large
wave energy companies, and has been accused of “pulling the rug” out from under
at least two of these major companies as commercial success had yet to
materialize.
In the wake of these recent wave power failings, Brian
Wilson, U.K. energy minister between 2001 and 2003, wrote that “we should not
give up on marine renewables” even if they are oversold to the public and
overhyped for their benefits, making them almost guaranteed to disappoint.
“The same problems and challenges exist around the world.
But for heaven’s sake, spare us the political hype and downright deceptions. If
these technologies are ever going to deliver anything, it will be on the basis
of technology — not the spin of politicians.”
Source: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/22/3606131/269-sunken-turbines-tidal-power-scotland/
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