Green Options

The Scotsman reports ScottishPower Renewables is planning to apply for planning permission to develop three tidal energy projects, the world’s first, off the coast of Scotland.

The projects, the first two with 20 turbines each, would be constructed for installation in Pentland Firth, the Sound of Islay and off the North Antrim Coast. The turbines are expected to be 30 meters (approximately 100 feet) in height, with 20-meter blades working at least 10 meters below the water surface.

Sidestepping a major concern common to wind turbines — harm to birds — ScottishPower says, based on tests conducted in Norway, the tidal turbines turn slowly enough to avoid harmful incidents with sea life.

Coming on the heels of the inauguration of the world’s first commercial scale tidal power turbine, Electricite de France (EDF) has announced that it plans to build a pilot tidal turbine system. The plan calls for 3 to 6 turbines to be built with capacities between 4 and 6 MW by 2011.

The location of the site (off Paimpol in Brittany) was chosen due to the extremely strong currents in the area.

While the recently installed SeaGen tidal power system in Ireland was certainly revolutionary, the French plan is as well. France alone has 80% of the potential in Europe for generating electricity from tidal currents—enough to theoretically create 10 million MWh per year.

Australian wave power generators inspired by nature’s know-how are meeting their development goals and have the potential to leave other renewable power sources in their wake.

Biopower Systems is just one of the wave-energy developers gaining attention by meeting its technological goals and backing this up with investment support.

Watch this excellent animation of how the new SeaGen project in Northern Ireland built by Marine Current Turbines will work. Transport of the units began a few weeks back and the installation of SeaGen should be completed shortly.