World’s First Large-Scale Tidal Energy Farm Launched in Scotland

The launch of the world’s first large-scale tidal energy farm in Scotland has been hailed as a significant moment for the renewable energy sector. A turbine for the MeyGen tidal stream project in the Pentland Firth was unveiled in the Scottish Highlands. The turbine, measuring about 15 m tall (49 ft), with blades 16 m in diameter, and weighing in at almost 200 tonnes, will begin its journey to the project’s site in the waters off the north coast of Scotland between Caithness and Orkney.

The Edinburgh-based developer Atlantis Resources hopes the project which has received £23m in Scottish government funding will eventually have 269 turbines, bringing its capacity to 398 MW, which is enough electricity to power 175,000 homes. Fabrice Leveque, the climate and energy policy officer at the environmental body WWF Scotland, said, “It’s great that Scotland is now home to the world’s first large-scale tidal stream farm. It comes hot on the heels of Shetland tidal devices exporting power to the National Grid for the first time and the testing of the world’s most powerful tidal turbine off Orkney.

Source: www.theguardian.com