First client for scale sites
New nursery testing grounds in Orkney will nurture the evolution of wave and tidal energy technologies.
EMEC, the European Marine Energy Centre, is expanding its world leading test facilities by opening two special test sites for emerging marine renewable devices.
The sites are aimed at developers looking to bridge the gap between tank testing and full-scale offshore trials – and have already attracted their first client.
It was announced at All-Energy in Aberdeen – the UK’s largest renewables event – that Scottish company AlbaTERN, will take to the water at EMEC this summer with a scalable wave energy converter called SQUID.
“The experience we gain will be crucial to the development of our devices,” said John Findlay, Chief Executive Officer of AlbaTERN, which is based at Roslin in Midlothian.
“Our work to date has given us confidence that we’ve come up with a cost effective and efficient design to generate electricity by harnessing energy from passing waves.
Now we move on to the next challenge – the independent verification of its performance at sea we’ll gain by testing SQUID at EMEC.”
Funding from the UK Government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) supported the creation of the new berths for smaller-scale marine energy prototypes.
EMEC also provides offshore test sites where full size wave and tidal devices feed electricity into the National Grid while undergoing test programmes designed to demonstrate their energy generating capabilities.
Neil Kermode, EMEC’s Managing Director, said: “It’s vital that developers have the opportunity to literally get metal wet.
“That’s what we offer at EMEC and I’m delighted that AlbaTERN will be taking their device to sea at our new test facilities.
“These new sites open the way for marine energy technologies to undergo sea trials in more gentle conditions than those experienced at our main wave and tidal test sites – we’re responding to the needs of developers in opening the new sites.”
The new wave site is within Scapa Flow, north west of St Mary’s Bay. The tidal site is near Shapinsay Sound, off the Head of Holland.
Specially designed test support buoys were commissioned for both sites, to gather data and dissipate electricity generated by marine energy devices under test.
These take the place of the cables and substations at the full scale sites.
Kirkwall-based Venture Marine collaborated with multinational company ABMAS Engineering to create the test support buoys, with the construction work carried out in Inverness by Gael Force Marine.
Special anchors, fabricated in Orkney by Currie Brothers, act as mooring points at the nursery sites.
AlbaTERN’s concept is the brainchild of their Chief Technical Officer David Findlay and has been under development for four years.
The SQUID device is so called as it has the appearance of a squid, especially when under tow with its link arms trailing behind.
Once on site, an inflatable absorber that looks like a large balloon is filled with water. Sitting just under the surface, the absorber is moved by passing waves – and the energy from this motion drives a generator to produce electricity.
“It’s cheap to build and cheap to deploy, operate and maintain,” added David Campbell, AlbaTERN’s Chief Financial Officer. “Single devices could be used to provide electricity for an individual home, for remote communities close to the sea, or for other off-grid users such as fish farms. We’re getting interest from worldwide.”
The machine under test at EMEC is designed to produce up to 10 kilowatts (kW) of electricity – more than most domestic-scale wind turbines. Future versions will have a greater power output and will be capable of being deployed in AlbaTERN’s patent pending WaveNET – an array made up of multiple wave energy converters.
