UK: SeaGen Marks 5th Anniversary in Strangford Lough

It’s five years ago today that SeaGen was deployed by the “Rambiz” crane barge in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough.

As it was a world-first, the event attracted global media interest and a large number of people made the visit to the Lough to see the deployment take place. SeaGen’s installation was completed six weeks later, the first electricity was generated by the Lough’s fast-moving tidal waters in the July of that year and SeaGen generated at its maximum capacity in the December.

Five years on, SeaGen is still the world’s largest grid-connected tidal stream turbine and the many lessons learnt from its deployment and operation are helping with Siemens’ next generation tidal generation technology and its deployment in other stretches of water.

Over the past five years, SeaGen has stood as a beacon to the world in the development of marine renewable energy. It has generated more than 7GWh of power into the electricity grid. It has also welcomed a huge number of visitors from across the world, including HRH Prince Charles and various UK and Northern Irish energy ministers.

It has been featured on TV on many occasions, most recently on BBC TV’s Countryfile but also on Channel 4 News, Northern Ireland’s UTV, Ireland’s RTE, National Geographic, Discovery, Al-Jazeera TV, German TV and Chinese World TV. Last year, SeaGen was featured in a UKTI film that heralded the very best of British industrial innovation.

[mappress]
Marine Turbines, April 8, 2013