The world’s first commercial-scale tidal power turbine has delivered electricity into the British grid for the first time in preparation for full-scale operation, Marine Current Turbines announced yesterday.
The tidal current turbine, called SeaGen, briefly generated 150kW of power off the coast of Northern Ireland. SeaGen’s power is being intentionally constrained to 300kW during the commissioning phase, but once fully operational, it will generate 1.2MW of power, supplying clean and green electricity to the equivalent of 1000 homes.
Marine Current Turbines expects that the present testing and
commissioning phase will be completed by the end of the summer and an
official "switch on" will take place. Irish energy company, ESB
Independent Energy, is purchasing the power generated by SeaGen for its
customers in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
SeaGen, which works like an underwater windmill, was installed in
Strangford Lough in May of this year and commissioning work has been
taking place since then, including the vital grid connection undertaken
in partnership with Northern Ireland Electricity.
MCT’s Managing Director Martin Wright said, "SeaGen is the world’s
first commercial-scale tidal stream generating system by a large
margin. It is more than four times as powerful as the world’s second
most powerful tidal current system, which is our own 300kW SeaFlow,
installed off Lynmouth on the north Devon coast more than five years
ago."
Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton said: "This kind of world first technology and innovation is key to helping the UK reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and secure its future energy supplies"
Marine Current Turbines’ next project, announced in February 2008, is a joint initiative with npower renewables to take forward a 10.5MW project using several SeaGen devices off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales. It is hoped the tidal farm will be commissioned in 2011 or 2012.
The company is also investigating the potential for tidal energy schemes in other parts of the UK, and in North America.
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