Alstom’s full-scale tidal device installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland, has now injected over 100MWh of electricity into the grid.
This is a major milestone in the development of Alstom’s tidal stream device which follows the earlier connection of the turbine to the grid and the progressive ramp up to full nominal power of 1MW over the past months.
“These successful milestones with Alstom’s tidal turbine are reinforcing our customer’s confidence in our technology and in our ability to propose a reliable machine to the market. With these tests Alstom is becoming one of the key stakeholders of the tidal stream market” , stated Alstom New Energies Senior Vice-President Jacques Jamart.
The latest technical milestone is part of the ReDAPT 1 testing program which aims at demonstrating the performance of the machine in different operational conditions. Thanks to the generation of 100MWh of electricity, it is building confidence in the endurance of the machine, and in its reliability. In addition, with autonomous runs without interruption, the machine has demonstrated its ability to efficiently operate independently.
Alstom’s tidal technology has unique technical characteristics 2 which allow to minimise installation and maintenance costs: the buoyancy of the turbine enables the nacelle to be easily towed to and from the point of operation and attached to its pre-installed foundation. This reduces the time and costs needed to install or retrieve the turbine and avoids the need for specialist vessels and divers.
Tests will continue at Orkney in different operational conditions into 2014, to demonstrate further autonomous running capabilities and efficiency of the turbine while generating electricity to the grid. These testing campaigns will be followed by other tests including deployment in pilot farms before the start of full commercial production.
[mappress]
Press release, October 29, 2013; Image: alstom