Marine power heats up in Scotland

Scotland is aiming high with marine power, with the area opening up for the development of more than 700 megawatts of energy by 2020. ScottishPower wants to be a part of that development, announcing plans to generate up to a total of 60 MW from two tidal projects in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland.

The Crown Estate, which owns the U.K. seabed and controls the rights out to 200 nautical miles, said the Pentland Firth, off the northern tip of Scotland, is the first U.K. site to be made available for commercial scale marine power operations.

Scotland is already a world leader in the testing of marine power projects with what is currently the only full-scale wave and tidal power testing site in Orkney, but this latest move could put it at the top for commercial marine power generation as well.

Few marine power projects in the water around the world are grid connected and only a portion of those involve commercial scale systems.

Just last week, Portugal claimed the title for first in the water for a commercial wave power project, but it was Scottish technology that led the way (see Pelamis starts Portugal wave-power farm). Edinburgh, Scotland's Pelamis Wave Power installed the first of three 2.25 MW wave energy converters off Portugal's northern coast.

ScottishPower, part of Spanish energy group Iberdrola, said its tidal projects could be operational by 2011.

"We'll have to develop a facility to manufacture the devices either using existing manufacturers in Scotland or what we'd like to do is to build something for ourselves," Simon McMillan, spokesman for ScottishPower, told the Cleantech Group.

He said the projects are likely to cost well over £100 million ($177.9 million).

ScottishPower is using the Lànstrøm tidal turbine developed by Norway-based Hammerfest Strøm, a company jointly owned by ScottishPower Renewables, Norway's StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO) and Hammerfest Energi, also based in Norway.

Take a look at a rendering of the Lànstrøm turbine here >>

The turbine's name is a combination of its Scottish and Norwegian origins, with 'làn' meaning 'full' in Gaelic and 'strøm' meaning 'tide' in Norwegian.

The turbine has already undergone testing in Norway, and is expected get further testing in Orkney next year.

"We're fitting a full size prototype, a 1 MW prototype, larger than the one that was in the water for four years in Norway," said McMillan.

"That device will be constructed in Scotland, and that'll be in a 12 month trial. Following that, obviously we'll be seeking planning permission for the three sites."

ScottishPower expects planning applications to be submitted to the Scottish government and the Northern Irish Assembly next summer.

Each site will have between five and 20 turbines, with one site to be in the Pentland Firth and another in the Sound of Islay. The third site will be off the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland.

The Crown Estate is responsible for granting options for lease over areas of seabed in the Pentland Firth and the surrounding area and said that process will be concluded next year.

The U.K.'s potential for tidal power has been estimated at 13 billion kilowatt-hours per year, but ScottishPower plans to look abroad for opportunities as well.

"The estimated foreign value out of the total global value of the potential tidal power market is estimated at £40 billion," said McMillan.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Canada is also looking to support the tidal power industry, with the government of Nova Scotia planning to invest in what would be North America's first tidal power test site (see Bay of Fundy to get three test turbines).

The test facility will go in the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world.

ScottishPower also has a hand in wave power, making a deal with Pelamis for a wave farm in Orkney. McMillan said ScottishPower has planning permission for five Pelamis devices and is working toward getting that project online in 2010.

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