Orbital Marine Power’s O2 turbine in the Orkney Islands north of mainland Scotland in September 2021. Scotland has become a hub for companies and projects focused on tidal power and ocean energy in general.
William Edwards | AFP | Getty Images
Scottish engineering firm Orbital Marine Power announced on Monday that it has secured £ 8m ($ 9.64 million) to “fund the continued operation” of its O2 tidal turbine.
Orbital Marine Power said in a statement that it had raised £ 4 million from the Scottish National Investment Bank, which was established by the Scottish Government in November 2020. The remaining £ 4m was raised from Abundance Investment through more than 1,000 private investors.
“These debt facilities will be maintained by long-term sales of electricity from turbines, with projected clean and predictable energy of approximately 100 gigawatt hours, which will be supplied to the UK grid or hydrogen electrolyzer during the project period.” Orbital said.
According to Orbital Marine Power, its 2 MW O2 weighs 680 meters and has a hull structure of 74 meters.The company uses an O2 with a 10 meter blade Started grid connection power generation last yearAs “the most powerful tidal turbine in the world”.
Mark Munro, Executive Director of SNIB, said the investment in Orbital is in line with “the mission to support self-developed innovation and fair energy transformation.”
“The company’s unique and scalable approach to tidal energy has an important role to play on the road to net zero,” added Manro.
Scotland has long been associated with North Sea oil and gas production, but in recent years it has also become a hub for companies and projects focused on tidal power and ocean energy in general.
Orkney, an archipelago in the waters north of mainland Scotland, is home to the European Marine Energy Center. EMEC allows developers of wave and tidal energy to test and evaluate technology in the open ocean. Orbital’s O2 turbines are on the EMEC site.
Listed on New York last year TechnipFMCSupplying technology to the energy sector has announced a strategic investment in Orbital Marine Power.
European energy transformation
As the marine energy sector returned to pre-pandemic levels and investment increased significantly, the installation of tide and wave energy capacities in Europe surged in 2021.
In March, Ocean Energy Europe stated that 2.2 MW of tidal capacity was installed in Europe last year, compared to just 260 kW in 2020. For wave energy, 681kW was installed in Europe in 2021. ..
Globally, in 2021, 1.38 MW of wave energy went online and 3.12 MW of tidal capacity was installed.
There is excitement about the potential of ocean energy, but the overall size of tidal and wave projects remains very small compared to other renewable energies.
In 2021 alone, Europe introduced 17.4 gigawatts of wind capacity, according to industry group WindEurope figures.
