The tidal power company Nova Innovation said on Wednesday that it would instal the turbines which are part of the Inner Hebrides between the Islands of Jura and Islay. The move will be another example of how marine energy can play a role in decarbonizing communities and businesses.
A project called “Oran na Mara” would soon power whiskey distilleries generated by subsea turbines in an archipelago west of mainland Scotland. The whiskey distilleries — Islay has nine, while Jura has one — have this electricity either directly or through the grid.
Nova Innovation has the Optional Agreement from Crown Estate Scotland, a public corporation managing marine, coastal, rural, and commercial assets to start the project. If everything goes into the plan, the company could complete the project by 2022.
The waters around Scotland have a variety of fascinating marine energy projects. For example, in the Orkney archipelago is the EMEC, where wave and tidal energy developers can test and evaluate their technology in the open sea.
The focus of the projects is on a range of technologies and innovations. In November, for example, the EMEC reported that a 1.8-megawatt-hour “flow battery” would be deployed at a tidal power test site in Eday Island, Orkney.
At that time EMEC stated that during “high power periods” the system supplied electricity produced by mare turbines and then discharged it during lower power periods.
The International Energy Agency said that “marine technology electricity generation” grew by an estimated 13 per cent in 2019.
Whilst this is a positive development, the IEA adds that policy supporting research and development “is necessary to reduce costs further and develop at a large scale.”
In 2019, Ocean Energy Europe reported that only 1,52 MW of tidal stream capacity was added to focus solely on tidal and wave power and for wave energy, 0.6 MW were added. To put these figures into perspective, WindEurope says in 2019 that Europe has installed 15.4 gigawatts of wind power.
