Irish firm installs tide turbines

16th September 2008

Irish renewable engineering firm OpenHydro has successfully installed its new 'open-centre' design tidal turbines on the sea-bed at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Scotland.

The turbines, each six metres in diameter, have been specially designed with an open centre so as not to hurt any marine wildlife, and can power 150 homes.

The turbine, aboard OpenHydro's purpose-built barge

OpenHydro, based in Louth, has spent 5 million developing the first purpose-built barge for laying underwater turbines, and believes that the predictable nature of tidal power, as opposed to weather-dependent solar and wind energy, means it will become a viable source of generating power in the future. They hope to develop tidal energy farms much like today's windfarms.

The six-metre turbines are mounted on a triangular steel structure on the sea-bed, and after further testing, OpenHydro hopes to build larger turbines to generate more power. Each turbine is mounted deep enough so as not to interfere with marine traffic, and can reduce the emission of 450 tonnes of CO2 each year.

The company has announced projects for its 1MW turbines in Nova Scotia and Alderney, and all the turbines are being constructed in Greenore, CO Louth.

For more, see www.openhydro.com

Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive

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