Scotrenewables Tidal Power has summarized the highlights reached by its SR2000 floating tidal turbine during this year’s testing program at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in a video which you can check below.
The SR2000 was first deployed at EMEC’s grid-connected Fall of Warness tidal test site in October 2016.
The floating tidal turbine, engineered and built with a 16-meter rotor diameter for each of its 1MW turbines, has broken several records, including a few of its own over the course of the year.
Namely, the SR2000 device hit its full-rated capacity of 2MW in April 2017. This fall, the turbine reached the peak generation of 2.2MW, which is the highest output ever by a tidal turbine, according to the Orkney-based developer Scotrenewables Tidal Power.
In September 2017, the SR2000 floating tidal turbine broke its own record set earlier in the year by generating more than 20MWh of clean electricity in a 24-hour period.
Following that announcement, Scotrenewables hit another milestone , having generated over 500MWh since being deployed.
In November 2017, the turbine claimed the record for the fastest 1GWh of power generated at EMEC – achieved in under just 16 weeks.
Beforehand, Orkney’s residents got 7% of their power, or 116MWh, produced by the turbine in less than a week of continuous generation, with shorter periods where that contribution exceeded 25% of demand over a seven-day period.
Scotrenewables said the 64-meter long floating turbine managed to uphold the continuous generation in waves with significant wave heights reaching 4.3 meters.
Also, Scotrenewables team has proved the maintenance practicability of SR2000 device in 2-meter wave conditions, according to the company.
The turbine is entering 2018 having generated over 1.3GWh of clean power so far with its rotors designed to operate at maximum 16 revolutions per minute, the developer noted.
The SR2000 project has been supported by Scottish Enterprise’s WATERS II scheme along with investments from Scotrenewables’ shareholders which include ABB, DP Energy, Fred Olsen, Total and Scottish Government via the Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF).