Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 144 July- Aug 2003

4. £19m more for wave and tidal

Speaking at a major conference on renewable energy on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides in March, Brian Wilson, then still DTI Energy Minister, announced £19 million in new funding packages from both the Government and the private sector, to encourage the rapid development of renewable energy- and in particular wave and tidal technology.

• £2 million of Government funding to build a Marine Energy Test Centre in Orkney and fund trials and development of two tidal stream energy projects, the ‘Stingray’ project and the ‘Seaflow’ project.
• £2 million to promote research and development in existing and new tidal and wave power technologies.
• work towards setting up a new capital grants scheme to support wave and tidal projects, worth at least £5million

As we note in ‘Marine Renewables’ later, the DTI has clearly picked up on wave and tidal power- it said they were ‘sometimes seen as the ‘poor relation’ of renewable generation’.

Wilson also announced investment from the commercial sector- a new joint venture between Scottish & Southern Energy and Weir Group to develop new technology and prototype wave power schemes, worth up to £10m (see next page). Wilson saw this as ‘a real breakthrough and a ringing endorsement of our policy of backing renewables. To get companies of this standing to move into the sector will give a lead to others. This new money is to ensure in the short term that we can maintain the momentum which has been created. The big drive to take wave power off the drawing board and into the water is really under way.’

He was clearly happy to see the Scottish Islands as being in the forefront. ‘Today we are contemplating the real possibility that these islands could become a power house on the periphery, making a serious and environmentally sustainable contribution to the energy needs of the whole nation.’

He hailed the "excellent progress" being made in developing major wind farms on the Isle of Lewis, which when built, could provide over 1GW of energy- equivalent to 1% of the UK’s total energy needs, and provide hundreds of manufacturing jobs.

Overall he said the signals for the future development of renewables were ‘encouraging’, and pledged continued support from the Government, both in terms of policy and financial incentives, to encourage a "climate of confidence" in the industry. But, he noted that, for it to grow, a fundamental overhaul of the electricity transmission system was needed: ‘We must rewire Britain to adapt to the age of renewables and of distributed generation’.

• Wilson was speaking at the ‘Creating sustainable futures’ conference, hosted by the Western Isles Alternative and Renewable Energy Partnership. See: www.w- isles.gov.uk/wiarep/creatingsf/htm

More Marine Energy

The Department of Trade and Industry certainly seems keen on wave and tidal power these days. Brian Wilsons announcement of £9m in government support (see above) followed from an earlier allocation of a total of £3.7m for new marine technology developments. In addition to the £1.2m allocated to Tidal Hydraulic Generation Ltd for its five turbine project in the Severn estuary (see Renew 143) Wavegen have been allocated £2.1m to harness wave energy from a new prototype, building on their past experience with the world’s first commercial wave machine on the Isle of Islay and other devices.

Brian Wilson said: "Wave and tidal power have huge potential to supply a significant proportion of the country’s future energy needs. Britain is already a world-leader in this technology. However, it is essential that we move from the research and development phase, which has been going on for many years, into commercial application. That is why I am particularly keen to build on the success of the solitary existing wave power station which is on Islay. Last year, I announced support, in principle, to Wavegen for a series of near-shore devices in the Western Isles, based on the same technical principles. I am delighted that this project has now obtained the green light from the expert assessment panel which looks thoroughly at all such proposals. They have worked closely with Wavegen to satisfy themselves about the technical viability of the project, which is intended to supply energy to the Scottish and Southern Electricity network.’

He went on ‘In recent months, Wavegen have been engaged in extensive surveys aimed at identifying the optimum locations for these installations. I also hope that there will be direct economic benefits to the islands through the construction work taking place at the newly re-opened Arnish yard, although this is a commercial judgement for Wavegen.’

He added, ‘similarly, I am delighted to support THGL’s tidal prototype in Pembrokeshire. The potential for such devices in the UK is significant but it also important to remember that there is going to be a global demand for proven technologies and we are well placed to capture this market once they are operating successfully in the UK. Success in projects of this sort will further the commercial development of wave and tidal energy and could lead to the creation of a major industrial sector with export potential.’

The DTI noted that there were potential benefits for manufacturing industries in the supply of fabrication services, hydraulic equipment, generators and power transmission products, as well as for installation / maintenance contractors.

Wavegen, based in Inverness, is one of the UK’s leading developers of wave energy technology and have successfully constructed the Limpet 500, a shoreline oscillating water column (OWC) device on Islay in Scotland. Their new offshore concept is also based on the use of OWC.

Tidal Hydraulic Generators Ltd (THGL) was formed in 2000 with the aim of developing this and other tidal stream power generation technologies to commercialisation. The DTI supported project, which also has the backing of the Welsh Assembly, is being carried out in conjunction with the University of Cardiff and will result in the construction of a prototype device consisting of a seabed fixed frame supporting five turbines. Babtie Group, a Glasgow-based technical and management consultancy, has the contract to design the turbines. David Baird, the division’s managing director, said that if the project was successful there would be commercial potential for similar systems across Scotland in areas such as the Pentland Firth and the Mull of Galloway.

For examples of existing wave and tidal projects currently being supported under the DTI’s renewables programme see: www.wavegen.com; www.engb.co.uk, and www.oceanpd.com.

‘Tidal is the Best’

Tidal power researchers at Southampton University favour marine current turbines over offshore wind farms to provide predictable energy. Research at the University suggested that marine current turbines had the potential to access four times more energy than offshore wind turbines.

‘Marine current turbines have many advantages compared to other renewable energy sources such as offshore wind farms,’ said Dr Bahaj head of the Sustainable Energy Research Group. He went on ‘It is estimated that a tidal current turbine rated to work in a flow between 2 to 3 metres/per second in seawater can typically access four times as much energy per rotor swept area as a similarly rated power wind turbine. Since tides are predictable, the power generated can be planned for and could be used for base load support of the grid. However, we need to know much more about how the technology will work before it will be viable and this project will take us another step towards the optimal turbine design.’

He added that ‘the potential of the electricity that can be produced from the resource is high’ and noted that his teams current estimate of the potential for just one site, the races of the Channel Islands, ‘indicates that this will be about the same as the electricity produced by three Sizewell B nuclear power stations’.

The University of Southampton have been awarded £215,000 over the next three years by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to research the development of turbines to generate power as tides ebb and flow. The work will focus on turbine blade design and how the blades are affected by the marine environment, and on determining the optimal conditions for successful operation.

...but not the Severn Barrage

A report ‘The Severn Barrage - Definition Study for a New Appraisal of the Project’ was commissioned from the Severn Tidal Power Group by the DTI as part of the Renewable Energy Programme, and to feed into the Energy Review. Its conclusions were mixed. The proposed 11 mile long 8.4GW barrage would generate 6% of the UK’s electricity barrage, but only have a firm capacity equivalent of around 1.1 GW, due the the cyclic nature of the tides. Some pumped storage could help improve this a bit, but even so the financial assessment looked poor, even with the help of the Renewable Obligation.

Once built it would deliver power reasonably competitively, but it would cost between £10-15bn, and financing that would add to the price that had to be charged. The huge slabs of power it would produce would also disrupt the power system both technically and economically- there would have to be some grid strengthening and the power output would probably have to be ‘ring fenced’ within the NETA trading mechanism to protect other sources. There could be social benefits to offset the cost, but even if started now the barrage could not be fully operational before 2014, so it could not contribute to the UK target of obtaining 10% of our electricity from renewables by 2010.

The White Paper duly relegated the barrage to the longer term, in particular siting the environmental problems that it might create. But maybe, when hydrogen is a common energy storage medium, the barrage will make a come back?

See: www.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewables/severn.shtml