News

Rolls-Royce Hits UK Renewables Milestone With Pioneering Tidal Technology

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Innovative Tidal Stream Power Generation Project First to Supply 100MWh to Scottish Grid
Demonstrates Rolls-Royce Commitment to Developing Next Generation of Cleaner Energy Solutions

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has achieved a significant milestone in the deployment of tidal energy technology with confirmation that its prototype tidal turbine, located subsea off the Orkney Islands, Scotland, has successfully generated and fed over 100 megawatt hours (MWh) of electrical power into the national grid.

Harnessing the reliable and predictable energy of tidal streams, the 500 kilowatt (kW) tidal turbine prototype was designed and built by Rolls-Royce wholly owned subsidiary Tidal Generation Limited.

Robert Stevenson, Rolls-Royce, Vice-President – Power Ventures said: “Rolls-Royce has injected its world-class engineering expertise and incubation processes to deliver this innovative renewable energy project. Reaching the 100 megawatt hours milestone highlights the significant potential of cleaner, greener tidal power as part of a diversified UK energy mix. Having proven the capability of tidal energy, Rolls-Royce is well placed to meet any future demand with larger, more efficient technology on a commercial scale.”

As a reliable and predictable energy source, deep water tidal stream power generation could make a valuable contribution to meeting the electricity demands and carbon emissions reduction objectives of many industrialised nations, including the UK, Canada, Australia and the U.S.A. For example, Rolls-Royce tidal technology could generate up to 30TWh (terawatt-hours) of UK electricity, equivalent to around 7.5 per cent of existing UK electricity needs or enough to power 3 million homes.

Harnessing the Energy of Tidal Streams

Installed as part of the Deep-Gen III project, co-funded by the UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board, the Rolls-Royce prototype tidal turbine is currently deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC) offshore test site off the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It is the first EMEC located project to both receive Renewable Obligation Certificates and to reach 100 MWh of supply to the grid.

The tidal unit’s three-bladed turbine is attached by a tripod to the seabed and can operate, fully submerged at water depth of 40 meters. Its innovative design allows the turbine to continually rotate to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle. In addition, the turbine unit is semi-buoyant and can be easily towed to and from the point of operation, minimising installation and maintenance costs by avoiding the need for specialist vessels.

Neil Morgan, Head of Energy at the Technology Strategy Board said: “This is a significant milestone for the UK marine renewables industry. The UK is well-placed to exploit tidal stream energy resources and, if commercialised on a large scale, this technology could be an important part of the renewable energy mix we’ll need in the future, and could create jobs and exports for the UK.”

As part of the Energy Technologies Institute funded ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal) consortium project, Rolls-Royce is currently building a 1MW tidal turbine demonstration unit that will be deployed in mid-2012 at EMEC in Orkney. The project will deliver detailed environmental and performance information never before achieved at this scale in real sea conditions. Rolls-Royce is also working with a number of developers in advancing demonstration arrays, systematic arrangements of turbines, which will lead to large scale commercial deployment.

Dr David Clarke, ETI, Chief Executive said: “The U.K. is already a world-leader in this exciting renewable sector. However, the long-term viability of tidal technology depends on it becoming competitive with other renewable energy sources. Continued investment and new partners are urgently needed to maintain momentum and bring the technology to scale.”

Rolls-Royce is a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, and has established a strong position in global markets – civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy.
As a result of this strategy, Rolls-Royce has a broad customer base comprising more than 500 airlines, 4,000 corporate and utility aircraft and helicopter operators, 160 armed forces, more than 4,000 marine customers, including 70 navies, and energy customers in nearly 120 countries, with an installed base of 54,000 gas turbines.
Annual underlying revenues were £10.8 billion in 2010, of which more than half came from the provision of services. The firm and announced order book stood at £61.4 billion at 30 June 2011, providing visibility of future levels of activity.
Rolls-Royce employs over 39,000 skilled people in offices, manufacturing and service facilities in over 50 countries. Over 11,000 of these employees are engineers.
In 2010, Rolls-Royce invested £923 million on research and development, two thirds of which had the objective of further improving the environmental performance of its products, in particular reducing emissions.
Rolls-Royce supports a global network of 28 University Technology Centres, which connect the company’s engineers with the forefront of scientific research.
The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills

The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led government body which works to create economic growth by ensuring that the UK is a global leader in innovation. Sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Technology Strategy Board brings together business, research and the public sector, supporting and accelerating the development of innovative products and services to meet market needs, tackle major societal challenges and help build the future economy. For more information please visit: www.innovateuk.org

The Energy Technologies Institute is a UK based company formed from global industries and the UK Government. The ETI brings together projects and partnerships that create affordable, reliable, clean energy for heat, power, transport and associated infrastructure. For more information, please visit: www.energytechnologies.co.uk

TGL successfully re-deploys 500kW machine in Orkney

July 2011

TGL has re-deployed the 500kW tidal stream turbine at EMEC on Friday 24th June. After a few days to complete commissioning and safety checks, the machine is now generating at full rated power.

The re-deployment process was easily achieved within the tidal slack water period of 25 minutes, demonstrating again our low cost deployment method without the need for divers.

Tidal Development In Pentland Firth, Set For MeyGen

November 2010

A tidal energy syndicate by the name of Meygen and consisting of International Power (45%), Morgan Stanley (45%) and Atlantis Resources (10%) has won the right to develop a huge tidal energy project in the Pentland Firth by the Crown Estate.

The early plan is to put together a scheme that will involve 400 submerged turbines capable of generating 400MW of electricity. The Inner Sound, which lies between the Caithness coast and the island of Stroma, is one of the Firth’s strongest tidal areas.

The device that is most likely going to be used in the project is the Atlantis Resources developed AK-1000 tidal turbine. The operational lease that has been granted for the site is for 25 years and the construction of the project is expected to take place in 6 phases until its completion in 2020. The first phase will be a 15MW array and this will require planning consent in the first half of 2012 followed by installation of the first turbines in either 2012 or 2013.

The first phase of the project will be aimed at assessing the environmental impacts of the presence of the turbines. In this phase of the project the devices will include the Atlantis Resources devices as well as 10MW contributed by TGL Rolls Royce.

Morgan Stanley is a supporter of tidal power and will be present, along with International Power, to meet the majority of the project costs in the initial phase of the project. The presence of major companies such as Morgan Stanley and International Power should serve to instill confidence in other industry leaders as other sources of financing is sought.

It is expected that the majority of the costs of the project will relate to installing the tidal turbines and the costs are expected to be reduced significantly once production of the turbines takes place at scale.

Rolls Royce Tidal Turbine ticking over at Orkney test berth

October 2010

Rolls-Royce has produced first power from its 500kw tidal turbine at the European Marine Centre in Orkney.

The system, build by Bristol’s Tidal generation Limited, generated peak output of around 150kw and clocked up its first megawatt –hour during a “gentle run-in” over the 10 days following installation on 21 September.

The nacelle was resurfaced and brought back to shore for a cautionary inspection. It will be reinstalled during the next calm weather window. The hope is to reach ful power within a month.

The work will inform a follow-up project called Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal, or Redapt, funded by the Energy Technologies Institute. A spokesman for ETI said the first phase of the three and a half year programme will see 1MW Rolls-Royce / TGL tidal turbine installed and operating at EMEC in early 2012

UK wave and tidal power gets £7m

July 2010

UK wave and tidal power research is receiving £7 million in support from the Technology Strategy Board.

Over 35 businesses and universities have been offered the support to help them to develop wave and tidal energy technologies.

The investment has been allocated through a collaborative research and development funding competition designed to support the exploitation of wave and tidal stream resources.

Cost down, reliability up
The 9 research and development projects will focus on driving down the cost of energy while improving the reliability and performance of wave and tidal stream energy devices.

Some of the projects will look to enhance the performance of existing devices while others aim to develop new concepts.

The Technology Strategy Board is investing £6.6m in the 9 wave and tidal projects while the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is contributing £400,000.

Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, says: “By 2050 we are going to have very different energy needs than we have today and we will be getting our energy from different sources. The UK is well placed to exploit wave and tidal stream energy resources with all of the coast line that we have, and it is expected this kind of technology will be an important part of the renewable energy mix needed in the future.

“We still need to prove which technological solutions will most successfully harness marine energy and we need to reduce the cost of the energy produced to make the technology competitive with other renewable energy solutions. So there are a range of technological challenges to address.”

The 9 projects
The 9 projects funded by the Technology Strategy Board are led by Aquamarine Power Ltd, Aviation Enterprises Ltd, AWS Ocean Energy Ltd, Fred Olsen Ltd, Green-Tide Turbines Ltd, Marine Current Turbines Ltd, Offshore Wave Energy Ltd, Small Hydro Company Ltd and Tidal Generation Ltd.

Tidal energy: Rolls-Royce buys in

December 2009

Rolls-Royce has already invested GBP1.5m in the sea-bed mounted tidal current device being developed by Bristol-based Tidal Generation Ltd (TGL) and it has now taken a 23.5% equity stake in TGL. The device is designed for use in deep water.

TGL is developing 500kW and 1MW demonstrators to assess viability ahead of the development of commercial multi-unit systems for tidal power arrays.

Additional development funding has come from the UK government to support the 500kW development unit, and International Power is to be the launch customer – selecting, procuring and developing sites for the initial production units.

Rolls-Royce Director of Engineering and Technology, Colin Smith, said: “The TGL concept incorporates novel installation, deployment and recovery techniques, and we believe it could lead to a cheaper, and more reliable and maintainable tidal power system than is currently available”.

While ideas for free-standing tidal current devices continue to proliferate, opposition continues to large-scale tidal barrages since they are seen as having major impacts on the local ecology. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has come out strongly against the proposed GBP15 billion, 8.6GW Severn Tidal barrage and also the 1GW GBP2 million tidal barrage 11 miles across the Wash proposed by dot-com millionaire Dr Peter Dawe.