EMEC hydrogen storage cylinders (Credit Colin Keldie)

ITEG

Project: ITEG (Integrating Tidal Energy into the European Grid)

Timescale: 2017 – 2023

Funder: Interreg North-West Europe

Funding: EU funding – €6.46 m/ Total budget – €11.79 m

Project overview:

ITEG addresses grid export limitations faced in remote communities by developing and validating an integrated tidal energy and hydrogen production solution for clean energy generation on the island of Eday in Orkney.

Initially due to complete in December 2022, ITEG received an approved project modification in September which will see the project run until 2023. In a context of global supply chain issues, the 0.5 MW hydrogen electrolyser could not be delivered by partner Elogen within the timeframe of the project. Elogen remains a partner within the consortium and will support the production of valuable documentation on topics including lessons learned during manufacture, technological advances and scalability of electrolysers.

The updated combined tidal and hydrogen solution will use power generated by Orbital’s 2MW tidal turbine, the Orbital O2, deployed at the Fall of Warness in 2021, to demonstrate hydrogen production from tidal energy using EMEC’s 670kW electrolyser at the Caldale site with a smart onshore energy management system (EMS) installed on Eday.

EMEC’s vanadium flow battery installation on site will also be incorporated into the demonstration, ‘smoothing’ the tidal power output to optimise hydrogen production. The EMS system will enable EMEC to control whether the tidal power generated is fed into the national grid, directly into the electrolyser to produce hydrogen, or into the battery to be stored and used at a later date.

ITEG: A Closer Look

Take a closer look at EMEC’ hydrogen production site on Eday and the low carbon technologies involved in the project through this 360 video.

Discover the tidal and hydrogen technology and the key energy management system which will integrate everything together. Once the all-in-one system has been demonstrated, this will validate the solution for clean energy generation which has the potential to be rolled out more widely in other remote areas around the globe with strong tidal resource.

Follow ITEG

EMEC’s role

EMEC is the lead partner for this project. EMEC will develop an energy management system (EMS) to efficiently produce hydrogen from a tidal power input.

Webinars

A four-part series was developed between 2021 and 2023 as part of the project. The webinars feature various guest speakers who provide insight into the ITEG project and related research in tidal energy, hydrogen production and end use applications as well as the discussion around the scale up.