Project: Tidal Turbine – Orkney
Location: European Marine Energy Centre, Orkney, Scotland
Company: Scottish Engineering Company, Orbital Marine Power
Tratos & Orbital Marine Power cooperation
The Tidal turbine developed and manufactured by Scottish Engineering Company, Orbital Marine Power, which employs a bespoke Tratos Tidal Power Cable solution, reached full rated power at the European Marine Energy Centre, Orkney.
Tratos originally supplied its cable system for ScotRenewables’ SR2000 2MW tidal turbine testing programme in 2015. After undergoing grid connected commissioning works prior to Christmas last year, the SR2000 was re-connected to its subsea cable and, following energisation, the 500-tonne floating tidal turbine commenced generation of power export to the local Orkney grid.
Since then, the turbine has been undergoing a phased testing programme leading to full, 2MW rated export capacity being achieved on 12th April.
Tratos’ cable system integrates existing power and communications technologies into a combined, robust solution for challenging tidal environments. The innovative system sees power and fibre optic cable combined to power the tidal system hook-up.
The system consists of a 6-10kV, 3 core, armoured cable, designed to maintain integrity while being moved around in harsh conditions, including bend restrictions to prevent damage under the sea. All cable meets IEC standards 60228 and 6052-2 and is manufactured in Italy.
About Scotrenewables Tidal Power Limited
“Scotrenewables” was founded in 2002 to develop and commercialise a low cost floating tidal energy converter. Since then, the company has developed the technology through more than 10 scaled devices. In 2011, the company launched the SR250 (250 kW) prototype, the first large scale floating tidal turbine in the world. The turbine had an extremely successful 2½ year testing programme at The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), clocking up more than 4,000 hours of deployment in the harsh operating conditions as tides flow between the North Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea through Orkney’s Northern Islands.
Between 2013 – 2016, the company designed, fabricated, assembled and launched its first full-scale turbine – a 2MW 500tonne turbine, known as the SR2000. This is the largest and most powerful tidal turbine in the world and has recently started its grid connected testing programme at EMEC. At 64m in length, Scotrenewables’ SR2000 is longer than Edinburgh’s Scott Monument and is capable of generating 2MW of power – enough to meet the needs of approximately 1,000 homes over the course of a year.
Did you know?
Many tidal energy developers have seabed mounted turbines. These turbines often require large, dynamic positioning vessels, with heavy lifting capabilities in order to install and remove them on the sea bed, where once installed, they cannot be accessed without being removed from site.
In order to provide a device that meets Scotrenewables core values, this resulted in a floating turbine with retractable rotors allowing it to be easily towed to and from site with small, locally available vessels, at a fraction of the cost and mobilisation of many marine renewable competitors.
Tratos is very pleased to contribute toward achieving Goal 7 of the UN Global Goals to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Goal 13: Climate Action, GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being, Goal 14: Life Below Water, and Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
