Scottish tidal developer Nova Innovation has completed subsea testing of its next-generation turbine technology at Babcock’s facility in Rosyth.
The Edinburgh outfit’s Tidal Turbine Power Take-off Accelerator (TiPA) is being developed as part of a three-year project aimed reducing the cost of tidal power by 30% through increased efficiency and long-term reliability.
Nova claims the direct drive power take-off (PTO) subsystem turns tidal energy into electricity more effectively than conventional systems using a gearbox and generator.
The new PTO will improve the reliability and efficiency of tidal energy devices, as well as reducing the cost of tidal energy, it said.
Accelerated subsea testing started in January and following the completion of the first phase of testing in April, the TiPA PTO was retrieved, inspected and redeployed on schedule for the second phase.
The second phase is now complete and the PTO is undergoing inspection at Nova Innovation’s manufacturing facility in Edinburgh, where learnings will further optimise the PTO design.
The project is funded with €4.4m through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for research and innovation. Partners include the University of Edinburgh, SKF, Delft Technical University, RWTH Aachen University, Siemens and Wood Group.
Upon completion of the three-year TiPA project, a commercialisation strategy will be developed to license and sell the PTO technology to tidal developers and to explore potential uses outside the tidal sector.
Nova chief executive Simon Forrest said: “Our projects are demonstrating that it is becoming economically viable to use the tides to generate electricity, and the successful testing of our power take-off subsystem means the TiPA project is on-track to reduce the cost of tidal energy by 30%.”