Scotrenewables Tidal Power has informed its SR2000 tidal turbine maintained tidal power generation during North Atlantic storms which battered the Orkney Islands in late fall and early winter.
During this period, the surface floating SR2000 endured wave heights in excess of 7 meters, the Orkney-based developer informed.
The turbine also managed to maintain continuous generation in sea states of over 4 meter significant wave height and maintained 2MW rated power in 2-meter waves – demonstrating the turbine is capable of generating through around 99% of conditions experienced at the Orkney site.
Over the past five months, the SR2000 has generated in excess of 1.2GWh, according to Scotrenewables.
Andrew Scott , Scotrenewables CEO, said: “This is our first winter operating the 2MW unit and we are already fully validating the strong performance and stability of the turbine in really harsh conditions.”
The company has also confirmed that it has only been using low cost vessels for all turbine maintenance and inspections through the period, and has demonstrated service response times of under one hour along with ship-to-turbine crew transfers in up to 2 meter significant wave heights.
Scott added: “Low cost tidal energy is dependent on being able to maintain turbines cost effectively and maximize generator up time.”
Scotrenewables has been testing its SR2000 at EMEC’s Fall of Warness test site since August 2017. The company said the testing would continue through this year.