BiFab will build world’s most advanced tidal energy turbine
17 August 2010 | Alternative Energy | No Comments
Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab), a Scottish company, was named as winner of the £4M contract to build world’s most advanced tidal energy turbine. ScottishPower, the developer of this project wants to create thousands of jobs for Scotland by installing such tidal turbines, in the next few years. These turbines will provide about 10MW of tidal energy, and will be installed off the west coast of Scotland, in the Sound of Islay.
Like solar or wind energy, tidal power can be harvested more efficiently only in certain areas of the planet. According to some recent studies, Scottish waters represents more than 7% of world tidal energy resources. So, having this big advantage, the Scottish government planned to generate more than 2GW (2,000MW) of electricity from tidal and wave power in the next 10 years.
“We know that the company looked internationally to find the right levels of expertise to deliver this contract, so it is a major boost to Scotland’s renewable energy industry and to the wider economy to see this new technology going into construction in Stornoway. With our projects in Islay and the Pentland Firth also being developed, we hope that the announcement today is just the beginning of what could be a major stream of new opportunities for the renewables and manufacturing industries in Scotland.”, said Keith Anderson, director of ScottishPower renewables.
The company wants to finish the project in the Sound of Islay until 2013, hoping in this way to provide enough electricity to export power to the mainland and also for Islay’s 3,500 inhabitants. Thinking that tidal power is very suitable for Scottish waters, Crown Estate has already licensed many companies, including ScottishPower, to develop similar projects around the Pentland Firth and Orkney.
Tags: Islay tidal power, scottish tidal power, tidal energy, tidal energy turbine, tidal generator, tidal power, tidal turbine, Wave Power