UK tidal energy pacesetter Orbital Marine Power has unveiled a new 30MW project in the waters off the Scottish Orkney islands, following signing of a key deal with seabed landlord Crown Estate Scotland.
Under the ‘option agreement’, the technology company, which installed a 2MW flagship version of its O2 turbine in 2021 at the European Marine Energy Centre, will build a 12-device array at a site in Westray Firth, with the project timeline still to be finalised.
“The waters around Orkney have significant wider tidal stream energy potential and the Westray site offers just one example of how this can be harnessed to provide clean, predictable power,” said Orbital CEO Andrew Scott.
“As the UK looks to accelerate the decarbonisation of its energy system, we firmly believe tidal projects can bring unique benefits while harnessing a perfectly predictable and secure source of renewable energy.”
Orbital’s cross-shaped ‘ocean-riding’ concept last year won strategic investment from Franco-American offshore oil contractor TechnipFMC for “market scale-up and deployment” of the technology.
The long-struggling UK tidal power industry was awarded break-through first wins in the Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction announced last July, with the Orbital Marine Eday 1 & 2, Morlais Magallanes and Meygen Phase 2 projects all coming away with deals, as lead-off installation that look ahead to a total of 41MW of tidal being brought online via the round, at a strike price of £178.54/MWh ($213.82/MWh).
Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, said: “Progress with Orbital’s Westray project is a vote of confidence in the potential here in the isles and demonstrates exactly why expanding grid capacity for Orkney has been so important.
“This good news is also evidence of the need for a more robust strategy from the government on tidal stream deployment, including continued and expanded backing in the next round of CfD funding. We need to continue to ramp up development in the years to come.”
Sian Wilson, Crown Estate Scotland, said: “The Westray Firth site offers a great opportunity to tap into the vast tidal energy resource within Orkney Waters. The predictable nature of tidal energy means such projects will perform a crucial role as we transition to a decarbonised energy system and build Scotland’s blue economy.”
Renewable projects in Orkney were recently given a boost by regulator Ofgem’s announcement of being “minded to approve” plan for a new 220MW transmission connection for the islands, to link the Scottish mainland to power exports from the offshore play.
Despite the promising progress on certain pilot marine renewables projects in Europe in the past decade, fewer wave and tidal power units were installed in in 2022 than any other year in over a decade, leaving the EU’s ambitious ocean energy deployment targets “increasingly at risk”, industry advocacy body Ocean Energy Europe warned recently.
