Tidal Generation Ltd
Established in 2005, Tidal Generation Ltd (TGL) is a Bristol-based company which designs, develops and manufactures tidal stream turbines for the capture and conversion of tidal energy to electrical power. In 2009, TGL became a wholly owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Plc. In September 2012, Alstom announced that it was in the process of acquiring TGL from Rolls-Royce.
Since 2005, TGL has been developing a 500kW tidal stream turbine – Deepgen – which was successfully deployed and connected to the grid at EMEC’s tidal test site at the Fall of Warness in Eday in September 2010. In March 2012, TGL announced that the device had generated 200MWh into the national grid since installing their device on site.
Deepgen is a horizontal axis turbine, consisting of a 3-bladed, upstream pitch controlled rotor with a relatively standard drivetrain and power electronics inside the nacelle. The nacelle is mounted onto a separate seabed mounted tripod foundation, secured to the sea bed by drilling and piling. The nacelle rotates on the foundation every time the tide changes to face the new oncoming tide. The turbine nacelle itself is buoyant, allowing the turbine to be towed to and from the foundation site.
TGL has now developed a next generation 1MW tidal stream turbine in a project partnership with the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), known as Project ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal). This project aims to collect and publish significant data in order to further the tidal energy industry as a whole.
TGL will replace the 500kW device installed at EMEC with their pre-production 1MW device in 2013. It will be mounted on the same tripod support structure and will undergo a 24-month test schedule.
The company then plan to install a 10MW demonstration array in 2013/14 in UK waters as a precursor to full commercial production, with the technology earmarked to be deployed in a commercial array in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth as part of the 400MW MeyGen project.
