Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine | Hacker News Reader

Scotland to House Largest Tidal Turbine

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95 pointsdigighoul20 comments

Here's a description of an earlier attempt, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/inside-worlds-firs...

All the press releases and articles describing work in the Pentland Firth are breathlessly optimistic. The environment here is fantastically unkind to marine equipment and at least one previous project (can't recall or find the details) was destroyed in a very short time.

To give you an idea, the current at Duncansby Head at the opposite end of the channel reaches 10 knots.

This stretch of coast is great to visit, especially on a clear day in winter. As it starts to get dark, you can watch about 8 lighthouses on the neighbouring islands switch on and flash their beams across the cold, dark waters.

https://www.nlb.org.uk/lighthouses/duncansby-head/

Disclaimer: Grew up in Wick, 20km to the south.

What are your thoughts on the project as someone familiar with the area? Good, bad, mixed?

As an outsider, it seems that Scotland is leading the world in offshore wind, which is someone Scottish Engineers could export to many other places. I see it as exciting.

It's a resource that's hard to ignore. There are good electricity grid connections nearby because of the, now decommissioned, fast-breeder reactor at Dounreay. It's a hellishly difficult place to work but that's kind of the point - if the technology can be made to work here then it will work anywhere.

There's a long history of marine engineering in the country. There's a lot of good expertise here and the Scottish government sees renewables and the associated technology to be a good export opportunity for the country. It would be great if the country to take the experience gained in the oil industry and use it in more environmentally friendly ways (if you ignore all the fish that the tidal turbines will be turning into an all you can eat sushi buffet for the local gulls).

> here are good electricity grid connections nearby because of the, now decommissioned, fast-breeder reactor at Dounreay

That and the recent 400kV upgrade of the Beauly to Denny high voltage transmission line to provide additional capacity for renewable energy sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_Scotland#Beau...

Inherently a problem - it's a great area for tidal energy because there's so much energy in the water flow. Unfortunately that same energy is very good at smashing things.

Tidal and wave energy has really suffered from intermittent funding problems, such as the bankruptcy of Pelamis (Edinburgh and Orkney)

I got the ferry from Stromness to Scrabster once. A low pressure arrived on the scene just as we departed Stromness. About a quarter of a way into the journey I decided I'd like a coffee, I wished I hadn't. I swear at one point, as we rolled over the crest of one wave, I experienced weightlessness, as did the contents of my disposable cup. It must be one of the very few times on public transport I've had to "clambour" back to my seat. I remained seated for the rest of the trip.

Apparently this is a 2MW turbine

https://simecatlantis.com/2018/09/13/simec-atlantis-energy-u...

Thank you.

One would think that an article about a power generation system would at least provide information about nominal power and expected annual energy output.

Isn't 1,5 - 2MW much the same amount a standard onshore wind turbine would provide? I assume the tidal power generation must have some advantages (e.g. more constant output?)

I don't think it's the fact that it's constant, as it's predictable - you know when the tides will happen, unlike wind where you might have a week of low wind.

Actually wind and sun are very predictable, but intermittent.

The main benefit, I think, is having multiple generation sources as these will smoothen out any power drops from other sources.

Due to our shitty politics we don’t do onshore wind anymore.

Here in the Netherlands at least standard onshore windturbines are in the 2-4MW range (but up to 8MW is installed), and offshore 7-10MW is now standard.

>Isn't 1,5 - 2MW much the same amount a standard onshore wind turbine would provide?

No, perhaps 10 years ago. Offshore turbines currently being installed are in the range of 7-8MW. 10-12MW isn't far off.

Tidal power is very challenging. Tidal stream devices like this have a very high LCOE (levelized cost of energy) because the stresses on them are massive so they are built like tanks but capture little of the energy flowing past them. Tidal range designs like La Rance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station) are significantly more economic, but actually developing them and building them due to the size they need to be to be economic presents a major headwind for developers. There is huge potential globally for this but the will from investors and governments to really focus on it hasn't been there. These are mega-engineering projects with big risks, so capital flows to simple solar and wind instead.

Their ancestor : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rance_Tidal_Power_Station

They tried one (2mw project) in Canada’s Bay of Fundy but the turbine got damaged. I think we have a ways to go before seeing tidal power generation being commercialized

https://globalnews.ca/news/4644316/cape-sharp-tidal-turbine-...

Here's a good video on why getting Tidal power to work is hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRiKmgxrh0

I've just skimmed it, but that video appears to be about wave power rather than tidal power?

“Oh flower of Scotland When will we see Your like again”.

Well done Scotland!

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