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Northern Ireland tidal turbine breaks world energy record

Friday, 19 December 2008

A tidal stream turbine has broken the world record for generating renewable energy, it was claimed yesterday.

Enough electricity for about 1,000 homes was produced by SeaGen at the mouth of Strangford Lough, Co Down, in Northern Ireland.

It works like an underwater windmill and is driven by fierce currents around the bottleneck.

Martin Wright, managing director of developer Marine Current Turbines (MCT), said: "This is the highest power so far produced by a tidal stream system anywhere in the world and exceeds the previous highest output.

"Generating at full power is an important milestone for the company and in particular our in-house engineering team.

"We are very pleased with SeaGen's performance during commissioning. It demonstrates, for the first time, the commercial potential of tidal energy as a viable alternative source of renewable energy."

SeaGen was placed in the lough in May this year and has been undergoing trials since then. It has reached its maximum capacity of 1.2 megawatts.

It will be active for up to 22 hours a day.

Power is being purchased by Irish energy company ESB Independent for customers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

There are plans to produce up to 15 megawatts of energy at a similar project in Canada. Scotland also has a tidal wave test site.

Mr Wright added: "SeaGen is now running exactly as we said it would, but testing will continue to be carried out, not only to check SeaGen's performance over extended periods of operation but also to evaluate how components are standing up to the harsh conditions and to determine how the design might be improved.

"This work is vital for SeaGen's long-term commercial deployment in projects elsewhere in the UK and overseas."

MCT hopes to build another tidal farm off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales. It is considering schemes in other parts of the UK, Ireland and north America.

SeaGen began supplying a small amount of electricity to the National Grid in July this year. It sits 400m offshore between Strangford and Portaferry.

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Come on guys! Get in behind it.

For about the first time since Harlands built Titanic, NI is right there at the centre of a world first. But all you can do is nibble it to death with silly, ill-informed, small-minded sniping.

OK, Seagen may not be the ultimate solution to electricity production without burning fossil fuels but it's a step in the right direction. Or perhaps you'd rather pay those nice people in Norn Iron Electricity more than anywhere else in the British Isles for your power? Check it. It's a fact.

Northern Ireland is a place which produces damn little in the way of innovation. We should be right behind this project and shouting about it from the rooftops. And yes, I know, Seagen is not a 'local' company. So what? They're doing something very important. They're doing it right here and right now.

Posted by PB | 01.01.09, 19:50 GMT

I take it this is only a pilot project, to say that enough power for 1000 homes is available from this project is bending the truth quite a bit.
When you consider some high speed kettles consume 3 Kw. I guess the homes are all using gas except for lighting.

Posted by delco | 19.12.08, 17:20 GMT

This seems very good until one realizes the capital cost involved in producing this power! if the power was sold on a commercial basis it would cost at least 3 timess the present cost of power. Also it is not available 24 hours a day hence we need back-up power generation for the time interval.
For all such shemes (Wind and Marine + solar )we need a means of storing the power till the peak usage period. What N. ireland needs is to implement the Camlough Pump storage scheme begun in the 1970's and never finished due to the political situation.
Only with both systems can we ever hope to have a cheap green energy system.

Posted by Sparks | 19.12.08, 13:05 GMT

Andrew - there is a single electricity market in the Island of Ireland now - I guess they sell their power to the highest bidder.

Mickey -
a) 1.2 MW is a unit of power, where power is simply the work done divided by the time taken to do the work. The report states that the SeaGen will be active for up to 22 hours a day. If it's working at its peak power of 1.2MW for the full 22 hours (which would seem unlikely given that the tidal flow will rate will follow a curve of some sort between low and high tide), then it would produce 1.2 x 22 = 26.4MW hours (26,400kWh) of electricity.
b) See the answer to a!

Posted by Rick | 19.12.08, 10:01 GMT