The world’s largest tidal turbine was unveiled last week in Invergordon, Scotland. The AK1000, as it is called, developed by Atlantis Resources Corporation, will be installed on the sea bed and connected to the grid later this summer.
The turbine can reportedly generate enough electricity to power more than 1,000 homes. It is “designed for harsh weather and rough, open ocean environments such as those off the Scottish coast.”
“The giant AK1000 turbine has an 18 metre rotor diameter, weighs 130 tonnes and stands 22.5 metres high. It is capable of dispatching 1MW of predictable power at a water velocity of 2.65m/s,” Business Green reports.
This marks a pretty big milestone in the marine energy industry. It is one big project, but it is also the culmination of years of work to get the marine energy industry on the same stage as other forms of renewable energy and ready for commercial production.
“The AK1000 is capable of unlocking the economic potential of the marine energy industry in Scotland and will greatly boost Scotland’s renewable generation capacity in the years to come,” Atlantis chief executive Timothy Cornelius says. “Today is not just about our technology, it is about the emergence of tidal power as a viable asset class that will require the development of local supply chains employing local people to deliver sustainable energy to the local grid. The AK1000 takes the industry one step closer to commercial-scale tidal power projects.”
Cornelius says that with proper support (equal to the support that fossil fuel energy gets), marine energy could be a major source of energy in the future.
“We are at the start of a new industrial boom, akin to the development of the North Sea oil and gas fields,” said Cornelius. “If we receive the same support from all levels of government that the oil and gas industry received to make the North Sea the success that it is, then the future is very bright for marine power and even brighter for Scotland.”
Photo Credit: Atlantis Resources Corporation
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