They keep trying, but tidal turbines have yet to make it to the big league in terms of competing with established alternatives like wind turbines. The report calls it a vessel.
– – –
Scottish floating tidal turbine technology provider Orbital Marine Power has successfully launched its 2MW tidal turbine, the Orbital O2, from the Port of Dundee , reports insider.co.uk.
The operation was managed by Osprey Heavy Lift and saw the 680-tonne tidal turbine transferred from the Forth Ports quayside facility in Dundee into the River Tay using a submersible barge.
The launch marks the completion of the turbine build, managed by TEXO Fabrication, and the O2 will now be towed to the Orkney Islands, where it will undergo commissioning before being connected to the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), becoming the world’s most powerful operational tidal turbine.
Orbital’s chief executive Andrew Scott, said: “This is a huge milestone for Orbital; the O2 is a remarkable example of British cleantech innovation and the build we have completed here is an inspiring display of what a UK supply chain can achieve if given the opportunity – even under the extraordinary pressures of a pandemic.”
. . .
The launch of the O2 also marks the first vessel launch from Dundee since ship building ended over forty years ago.
The turbine has the ability to generate enough clean, predictable electricity to meet the demand of around 2,000 UK homes and offset approximately 2,200 tonnes of CO2 production per year.
. . .
The O2 turbine has a 74m long hull structure with twin 1MW power generating nacelles at the end of retractable leg structures designed to give low-cost access to all major components for through life servicing.
Its 10m blades give more than 600m of swept area to capture flowing tidal energy. The floating structure is held on station with a four-point mooring system where each mooring chain has the capacity to lift over 50 double decker buses.
The O2 has been designed so that installation of the turbine, and all its associated moorings, can be carried out by low-cost work vessels and servicing can be carried out by RIB vessels – minimising downtime and lowering construction and operational costs.
Electricity is transferred from the turbine via a dynamic cable to the seabed and a static cable along the seabed to the local onshore electricity network.
Full report here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
There were glowing reports of Crescent Dunes solar – before it failed. Actually, even after that.
Can we expect an influx of sharks to Orkney to feed off all the chopped up sea creatures?
Technically interesting. The proof lies in the pudding of subsidies. Indeed a grey area.
Best not try to boil your kettle on the turn of the tide.
Incidentally 2000 homes is NOT a metric of energy. Journalists please, please note. It is basically misinformation dressed up as a Meme. Not ethical.
<1 yr before it's abandoned : evens
❤ yrs before it's abandoned : odds on
Commissioned and operates successfully for life : pull the other one!
Love heart was less than 3.
‘The turbine has the ability to generate enough clean, predictable electricity to meet the demand of around 2,000 UK homes’
Predictable. 2,000 UK homeowners can look at the tide charts and know when they won’t have electricity. Can’t comprehend why that’s an advantage. Coal/gas plants are predictable. They will be running most all the time.
enough clean, predictable electricity
They can predict when you won’t get any. Keep your tide tables handy.
Welcome to progress, 21st century style.
ICYMI
I see National Grid has a solution to intermittency
Say hello to
The Green Light
https://www.nationalgrid.com/greenlightsignal
The green light comes on when the voltage drops or the cycles drop under 50.
When things are bad, the green light comes on. Pavlov says you will get to where you puke when the green light comes on.
Shure and pigs can fly and nuclear fusion is just around the corner too. Having been involved with the R&D of a well known British French Swiss consortium, in 2014 the cost per MW of their underwater leviathan was a staggering £389. Making it the dearest of all forms of electricity generation with a minuscule 1.0 MW sinusoidal output – when it was running? This latest venture looks like it has one advantage; it seems it can be maintained whilst floating? And assuming its chains can hold it in a very violent storm its also easy to sink it – handy for England’s growing enemies its creating, or might that be England’s re colonisation / new empire plans with enforced green energy? PS don’t tell me its got ballast tanks and bulkheads and it can submerge to go with the laminar flow? If that’s the case I’d estimate around £890 MW? And still a sinusoidal low mean output.
Nice engineering.
1000 of those would give the same electricity as a single 2GW nuclear power plant.
A lot of hype but no actual hard facts like ‘whose money was used to build the thing, how much energy do they expect to get during the usual storms when that tube will be bouncing around’.
I could go on but why bother, as MrGrimNasty says it will be lucky if it lasts more than 3 years, just long enough for the scammers to take their subsidy money to the bank.
When will they ever learn that we need real power stations either nuclear or coal.
That greenlight thing!
Two apps on your phone are required then I saw…..
From: https://carbonintensity.org.uk/
“The demand and generation by fuel type (gas, coal, wind, nuclear, solar etc.) for each region is forecast several days ahead at 30-min temporal resolution using an ensemble of state-of-the-art supervised Machine Learning (ML) regression models. An advanced model ensembling technique is used to blend the ML models to generate a new optimised meta-model. The forecasts are updated every 30 mins using a nowcasting technique to adjust the forecasts a short period ahead.”
Models and worse.. ensembles of models…
“When the electricity in your local area starts to be supplied mainly from clean or green energy sources, such as wind or solar, the magic happens and the bulb will glow green. Then it’s time to charge your electric vehicle, put on a hot wash, run your tumble dryer, or just feel good about the progress we’re making towards net zero.”
“…or just feel good about the progress we’re making towards net zero.”
Until the next power cut 😣
“The demand and generation by fuel type (gas, coal, wind, nuclear, solar etc.) for each region is forecast several days ahead at 30-min temporal resolution using an ensemble of state-of-the-art supervised Machine Learning (ML) regression models. An advanced model ensembling technique is used to blend the ML models to generate a new optimised meta-model. The forecasts are updated every 30 mins using a nowcasting technique to adjust the forecasts a short period ahead.”
Can I get some roquefort for that word salad?
I hypothesize that the device will NEVER generate enough power to cover the cost of its creation and deployment. Net zero. [See what I did there?]
The rising claims of the climate consensus seem to always end up like this:
Failed projects sustained by tax payer money and gratuitous deception from media.
‘‘most powerful tidal turbine’
An expensive high tide of virtue signaling, for that is all it is. AKA a waste of money!