A £8.8 million (€10 million) project funded by the European Union and UK Research and Innovation was launched yesterday (17 January) to maximise tidal energy generation by developing the “world’s largest tidal turbine blades”.
The announcement took place during The Princess Royal’s visit to the University of Edinburgh’s FastBlade facility.
Supported by the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service Edinburgh Innovations, the project will investigate the full lifecycle of tidal turbine blades – from materials and manufacture to recyclability – developing improvements for their performance whilst also finding ways to reduce costs.
Part of the project’s plan includes increasing the rotor swept area harnessed by Scottish tidal technology company, Orbital Marine Power, to over 1,000 square metres – an increase of 70%.
To achieve this MAXBlade, funded by the European Union, will increase the length of the turbine blades from 10 to 13 metres, making them the “longest of their kind in the world,” according to the University of Edinburgh.
The project team believes that increasing the length of the turbine blinds will have “the single greatest impact on reducing the cost of tidal energy”.
Modelling from the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Energy Systems supports this forecast of success, estimating that harnessing wave and tidal energy could generate £40 billion for the UK economy.
Earlier this month RenewableUK’s chief executive, Dan McGrail, called for the more investments in low-carbon flexibility for the UK’s energy system – including tidal stream – to “strengthen the UK’s energy security, enabling us to move closer towards energy independence in the years ahead.”
After a two-year design and development phase, the project will move to an 18-month build stage where the blades will undergo advanced structural testing at rapid testing facility, FastBlade.
Two of Orbital Marine Power’s O2 floating platforms will then each be fitted with four turbine blades and go through two years of real-world testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. This aims to generate 120,000 hours of performance data for the EMEC to analyse, alongside the research and technological development centre partnering the project, TECNALIA.
Findings from the project will be integrated with data from MAXBlade’s sister project, FORWARD2030, to allow for large-scale productions of Orbital’s O2 turbine technology.
“Orbital is delighted to be involved with so many great partners on this truly cutting-edge project,” said Andrew Scott, CEO at Orbital Marine Power.
“MAXBlade will help deliver tidal energy into a future, low-carbon energy mix at lower costs while, at the same time, position UK & European businesses to benefit from long-term industrial opportunities that will come from this new, sustainable industry.”
Orbital Marine Power is one of the most advanced UK tidal companies, and in 2021 confirmed it will qualify multiple applications for submission into the fourth Contracts for Difference round, which opened this week.
Following the announcement of this latest project, head of school and chair of materials engineering at Edinburgh University, Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh, added: “The University of Edinburgh is delighted to be a partner in the MAXBlade project, where we will demonstrate the unique rapid testing capability of the FastBlade facility. This will help the tidal energy industry to de-risk their ongoing turbine developments and provide low-cost, reliable renewable energy to the grid. We will also lead the development of thermoplastic resins in MAXBlade and the circular economy roadmap needed for future tidal blade manufacturing and recycling.”