‘World’s First’ Community-Owned Tidal Turbine Set for Shetland

August 27th, 2012 by Nicholas Brown

A community-owned tidal turbine which is claimed to be the first in the world is expected to be installed off the coast of the Shetland Islands early in 2013, according to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.

SeaGen Tidal Turbine

Nova Innovations is the company that will supply this 30-kw hydroelectric generator. This is relatively small compared to other power plants, but this industry is still in its infancy. The tidal turbine will be connected to an electricity grid and is intended to power a local ice plant and industrial estate.

This project has been under development for three years and has received the assistance of the Community Energy Scotland and Shetland Islands Council.

Alex Salmond said:

“Scotland is leading the way in the development of marine renewables, and [the] announcement that the world’s first community-owned turbine is to be manufactured and deployed on these shores is a truly fantastic endorsement of our burgeoning renewables sector.”

Last year, the Crown Estate granted a lease to use the seabed between Yell and Unst, which paves the way for more of these generators to be installed in 2013 and 2014 to create the proposed half-megawatt (500-kW) Shetland tidal array.

Simon Forrest, the director of Nova Innovation, said that the plans would help to accelerate the growth of the business and “significantly advance” the marine energy industry in Scotland.

“We see significant potential for tidal arrays for other communities across Scotland,” he added.

Source: BusinessGreen
Photo Credit: Fundy on Wikipedia

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Tags: hydroelectric turbines, Nova Innovations, Scotland, scotland clean energy, scotland renewable energy, scotland tidal energy, scotland tidal turbine, tidal power plant, tidal turbine

About the Author

Nicholas Brown writes on CleanTechnica, Gas2, Kleef&Co, and Green Building Elements. He has a keen interest in physics-intensive topics such as electricity generation, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, energy storage, and geography. His website is: Kompulsa.com.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Madan-Rajan/1533765748 Madan Rajan

Excellent, the world’s 1st wind turbine had only 22 KW (kilowatts), today there are wind tubines with capacity of 240,000 MW (Megawatts). Already 3 companies have this type of tidal turbine.