Original news was published on 13 August, 2014

First Wales tidal project to begin work in September

Tidal Energy unveiled Wales’ first full-scale tidal energy generator at Pembroke Port.

The Ysbryd y Mor (Spirit of the Sea) weighs 150 tons and measures 16 meters long and 20 meters high. The generator was manufactured by Mustang Marine at Pembroke over the past six months, Tidal Energy said in a statement. Its DeltaStream technology represents several firsts in the nascent tidal energy sector.

“We have achieved a number of firsts with this project, including those relating to the environmental consents, the grid connection and the installation process undefined where the turbine and foundation are installed together,” Martin Murphy, managing director of Tidal Energy said.

Unlike other tidal turbines under development, the DeltaStream unit is freestanding undefined gravitational pull anchors it in place, eliminating the need to drill a foundation into the seabed.

In September, the 400kW-DeltaStream demonstration device will be installed in Ramsey Sound, Pembrokeshire. It is the first project to receive precautionary deploy and monitor environmental consent in a designated Marine Special Area of Conservation. An extensive suite of monitoring equipment will be installed on and around the device in Ramsey Sound for 12 months. After a year of testing, the generator will be removed.

Plans are underway to build a commercial tidal array off St. Davids Head in Pembrokeshire. The project will consist of nine tidal generators with a combined generating capacity of 10 megawatts.

The U.K. Department for Energy and Climate Change estimates the U.K. has about 50 percent of Europe’s tidal energy resources, which could meet up to 20 percent of its electricity demand.

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