Blog: Great footage of Voith turbine deployment at Fall of Warness

This video by SAL Offshore provides great insight into one example of a prototype tidal turbine installation. Filmed in September 2013 the video shows the first time the Voith turbine is deployed in the turbulent tidal conditions at EMEC’s tidal test site at the Fall of Warness, off Eday.

The video begins in Stavanger in Norway where the MV Lone, the dynamic positioning (DP) vessel used for the installation of Voith’s Hytide 1000-13 tidal turbine, mobilises the ROV spread and project equipment. The vessel then sails to Hatston Pier in Kirkwall to load a Launch And Recovery System (LARS) for the turbine. After conducting a HIRA (Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment) with all involved parties and a function test of the equipment, the MV Lone departs Hatston Pier for EMEC’s tidal test site to conduct DP trials and ultimately install the turbine.

The installation process requires the MV Lone, supported by local vessels Scotmarine and Voe Viking, to lift the tidal turbine from its transportation cradle on a barge and place it on the pre-installed foundation. Some interesting underwater footage was captured of the device connecting to its foundations by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) which was monitoring the process underwater, and assisted with hooking up the controls.  Securely installed in the foundation the turbine blades are some 14 metres below sea level.

All this took place while the vessel’s DP system held position in very strong currents (peak tidal flow at spring tides can reach 4m/s, or 8knots). Although the installation was achieved at slack water there was still a 1 knot tide running, and this only occurs once every six hours so the vessel was also required to sit through the full flood which peaked at a maximum current of 5 knots on the day.

A great effort from all involved.