Scottish renewables company is to develop the world's largest tidal stream project, which could be located in Northern Ireland.

Three separate coastal sites are currently being evaluated by Scottish Power Renewables for their suitability to the project; the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay, both of which are in Scotland, with the third off the Co. Antrim coast in Northern Ireland.

Each site is being evaluated for with a view of installing between 5 and 20 tidal turbines. With each turbine having an installed capacity of IMW, this could lead to a combined output of 60MW – enough green energy for over 40,000 homes. If planning permission is granted, the projects could be operational as early as 2011.

The tidal stream units to be used at the three sites are known as Lànstrøm and are designed by Hammerfest Strøm AS, a Norwegian company jointly owned by ScottishPower Renewables, StatoilHydro and Hammerfest Energi. The units are mounted on the sea bed and aligned to the tidal flow.

Each device will generate around 1MW of output, with future arrays of multiple devices anticipated to generate from 50MW to 100MW each.
"This is a historic day for the development of marine energy," said ScottishPower Renewables director Keith Anderson.

The rapid technological advancement of tidal power has enabled us to progress plans for this substantial project, which has the real potential to deliver significant environmental and economic benefits.

"Scotland has the best tidal resources in Europe with the Pentland Firth alone containing enough tidal energy to meet a third of Scotland's power requirements."

The tidal power resource is estimated at 150bn KwH per annum globally. The UK share has been estimated at 13bn KwH and over 80% of this is located in Scottish waters.

"Scotland has massive potential to meet our energy needs several times over from a wide range of renewables, from wind through biomass, hydro power and the massive potential of the sea. This, added to our advantages in clean coal, gas and carbon capture makes for an exciting energy future for Scotland,” Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said.

 "Today, the focus is on the opportunities to be found beyond our shoreline. Caithness, and the waters churning off the nearby coast from the Pentland Firth to the islands of Orkney, stand as a powerful symbol of that renewable energy potential. Scotland has a marine energy resource which is unrivalled in Europe - we have an estimated 25% of Europe's tidal resource and 10% of its wave potential."

It is not yet known when the final decision on the project's location will be made.

Source: NCE