Project Neptune Phase 2 - Experimental Development

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Ocean Energy)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Civil Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
The Weir Group plc

Standard

DTI

27 September 2005

26 June 2007

21 months

£8,233,644

Power

Scotland

TIDAL

Project Contact, The Weir Group plc

Project Contact, SSE Generation Ltd
Project Contact, Strachan & Henshaw

The project will undertake detailed assessment of the key aspects concerning the installation, operation and maintenence of a twin horizontal axis turbine system designed to extract convert tidal energy to electricity. The project will involve the installation of a full scale 2.4MW grid connected prototype at EMEC (Orkney). The prototype will allow the operational testing of the novel design features and materials being developed to address the challenges facing tidal stream electricity generation. The innovative features include novel blade design and materials, the use of buoyancy to raise and lower turbines, use of a pressure hull to contain equipment, new structural design concepts, bi-directional operation, variable pitch control and the use of an inverter system to eliminate generator overspeed. These objectives are aimed at confirming the commercial viability of the concept leading to immediate subsequent commercial exploitation.

01/01/07