The Isles of Scilly are located in the waters off the south-west coast of England.
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A one-year research project that will focus on the potential of wind technology for tides, waves and floating in the waters off the coast of England has received support from Marine i, a program centered around innovation in areas such as marine energy.
The project will be based on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the south-west coast of England and led by the Isles of Scilly Community Venture, Planet A Energy and Waves4Power.
In a statement earlier this week, Marine-i – which is partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund – said the overall aim of the Isles of Scilly initiative was to “build a new database with data on wave and tidal resources.” ”.
This data will include information about a range of values, including wave height, wind speed and tidal flow speed. Marine’s support will come in the form of offering the consortium access to experts from its partners: the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth and the Offshore Catapult for Renewable Energy.
“Located almost 30 miles off the south-west coast of England, marine energy is a natural choice for us and could make Scilly self-sufficient in energy,” said Isles of Scilly Community’s Jim Wrigley on Tuesday. Venture.
“However, one obstacle in this regard is that the key data that developers need to assess their viability does not currently exist in terms of the level of detail required,” he added.
Wrigley said the new database “could be the key to unlocking some really interesting green energy solutions for Scilly.”
Marine energy
With miles and miles of coastline, it is probably no surprise that the UK is hosting a number of marine energy projects and initiatives.
Last month, it was announced that approximately £ 7.5 million ($ 10.3 million) of public funding will be used to support the development of eight wave energy projects run by UK universities.
In March, the Port Authority of London launched tests on tidal energy technology on a section of the Thames, a move that could eventually help decarbonise river-related operations.
Research and development focused on these types of technologies is not limited to the UK. This week, marine energy company Minesto, which is developing a tidal power project in the Faroe Islands, said its DG100 plant “delivered electricity on the grid to new record levels” during recent production.
And in February, it was announced that a tidal turbine built and tested in Scotland had been installed in the waters of a Japanese island chain. In a statement at the time, London-based Simec Atlantis Energy said its pilot turbine generated 10 megawatt-hours in the first 10 days of operation.
There is a growing interest in marine energy systems, but it should be noted that the current footprint of these technologies remains small.
Recent figures from Ocean Energy Europe show that only 260 kilowatts (kW) of tidal flow capacity were added in Europe last year, while only 200 kW of wave energy were installed.
Instead, 2020 recorded 14.7 gigawatts of installed wind energy capacity in Europe, according to the industrial body WindEurope.