Study boosts tidal power value in Faroe Islands

A new study shows tidal power may be a significant resource for Faroe Islands to balance other renewable energy sources.

This is the preliminary result of a PhD project on the energy balance and stability of the Faroese electrical system.

PhD researcher, Helma Maria Tróndheim, said:“So far the results indicate that tidal power may be of significant importance for the electrical system.”

Faroese electric utility company SEV published the study in its recently released annual report.

According to SEV, the electricity demand should increase from around 350 GWh in 2017 to around 600 GWh by 2030.

The demand increase is part of Faroese economic growth and also vision of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

SEV estimates it could be possible to utilise the equivalent of 150–200MW installed capacity for tidal power production in the Faroe Islands.

The company states that the inherent predictability of tidal stream energy is “a great advantage when compared to the instability and weather dependency of hydro, wind, and solar.”

Advantage for Faroe Islands is the time difference between peak flows in the different sounds between its 18 major islands.

Therefore, by installing tidal turbines at different locations, tidal energy is always available to enable renewable baseload power.

As a result, SEV and Minesto will launch two grid-connected turbines of Minesto’s tidal kite technology Deep Green.

The project is the first phase to add further tidal energy capacity by Minesto to the Faroe Island’s energy mix.