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Europe Testing Marine Power - 10/9/08

A marine energy farm developed by Aquamarine Power will be testing both wave and tidal technologies at the European Marine Energy Centre. Aquamarine will be the first Scottish company to test this new technology. They will place its tidal stream power device called the Neptune at the test site on the Isle of Eday. Neptune is an Edindurgh based company.

Neptune has been under development since 2004. It should arrive at the test site in 2010.

Neptune has the capacity of 2.4 MW. This is the most powerful tidal stream devise ever developed. The Neptune will produce electricity on a commercial scale. This will compete with other energy sources in the UK.

Neptune has two horizontal axis tidal turbines mounted on a single monopole generating energy from incoming and outgoing tides.

When Neptune arrives at the test site at EMEC it will be joined with another power producing device called the Oyster. The Oyster is a hydroelectric wave power converter. This testing will allow them to learn the best way to connect the device to the seabed. Testing will also help them learn about the survivability and reliability of the device, which will help in the design of future Oyster arrays.

The Oyster could be the most efficient system under development. A wave farm of 10 Oyster arrays could provide enough energy to power 3,000 homes.

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