Engineering news
The Carbon Trust has awarded a £390,000 grant to Cardiff renewable power company Tidal Energy to monitor the environmental impacts of a tidal-stream device soon to be located off the Pembrokeshire coast. The device will be the first tidal-power generator in Wales and will supply electricity to local homes during the 12-month survey.
Earlier this year the company got the go-ahead to install the 1.2MW device from the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Welsh government. The device, known as DeltaStream, will be manufactured over the next year and and put in place in the Ramsey Sound by summer 2012.
DeltaStream captures energy from the flow of water as tidal currents ebb and flood. The device is a 36m-wide triangular frame that sits on the seabed. Weighing 350 tonnes, the frame has three towers at each corner of the triangle, each with a turbine on top. The turbines can switch direction so the device can generate hydropower from the incoming and retreating tide. A subsea cable connects the device to the national grid on shore.
The Ramsey Sound falls within the Pembrokeshire Marine Special Area of Conservation which is home to protected species. An environmental assessment will look at whether the device affects the local flora and fauna.
Monitoring will pay particular attention to a colony of grey seals that live on nearby Ramsey Island as well as harbour porpoises which often visit the sound to forage, and diving sea birds. Martin Murphy, managing director of Tidal Energy, said: “A lot of work has gone into building up a set of equipment that can picture the immediate area around the device, to see mammals as they come into the area and see what they do.”
Because the water visibility is poor in the sound, this monitoring will be done with acoustic devices rather than video cameras. “The funding that we have been awarded from the Carbon Trust is to help us create a comprehensive monitoring equipment package and dataset,” said Murphy.
As well as looking at the environmental impact, Tidal Energy will be testing how the device generates energy in a fast-flowing tidal stream. After this scrutiny, the next stage will involve connecting several devices at subsea level to prove that useful levels of power could be produced. “That would be the foundation block for moving towards commercial realisation of marine renewable energy from DeltaStream,” said Murphy.
Looking to the future, Murphy said: “It is unlikely that we would put down devices at Ramsey Sound because the area is quite restricted. If we continue to work in Pembrokeshire we would work offshore. Around the UK there are a number of other areas where we could start building towards commercial development.”
These include a significant area around Anglesey in North Wales, a stretch of sea between the Scottish mainland and the Orkney Isles, areas between Northern Ireland and Scotland, and around the Isle of Weight and the Channel Islands, he said.
The UK has a world-leading marine energy industry that could be worth £76 billion by 2050. Analysis published earlier this year by the Carbon Trust suggests that the country could supply almost a quarter of the global marine energy market and provide 68,000 jobs.
Benj Sykes, director of innovation at the Carbon Trust, said: “Generating energy from the tides could be a major driver of green growth for us. This grant should provide essential insight into the effects of tidal turbines in sensitive marine environments and, as the findings will be made publicly available, benefit the entire industry.”
The Carbon Trust awarded the grant as part of its Entrepreneur Fast Track programme, which supports the UK's best early-stage clean-technology companies. The programme helps the companies commercialise technology and grow from start-ups to attractive investment propositions. The award covers 60% of funding needed for the project, with Tidal Energy's shareholders footing the remainder of the bill.