| Abstract |
Launched in October 2011 this project involved Black & Veatch, in collaboration with HR Wallingford and the University of Edinburgh to develop a model of the UK Continental Shelf and North European Waters, 100 times more accurate than existing marine data. This has been used to assess the tidal energy potential around the UK (tidal range and tidal streams), to inform the design of energy harnessing schemes, to assess their interactions, and to evaluate their impact on European coasts. It can also be used to renew and inform flood defences, coastal erosion and aggregate extraction. Now completed, the project has been launched to market under the brand of SMARTtide. This is available to the marine industry under licence from HR Wallingford.
The objective of the project is to answer the following fundamental questions- How will the interactions between tidal range and tidal current systems positioned around the UK’s waters combine to form an overall effect.
- Will the extraction of tidal energy resource in one area impact the tidal energy resource at distant sites around the UK and Europe.
- What constraints might these interactions place on the design, development and location of future systems.
This Executive Summary covers deliverable D01 – Tidal Resource Characterisation, which has been split into- Part A: Tidal Range
Potentially feasible locations for tidal range schemes that could give peak power output greater than 100MW have been identified giving:- 10 barrage alignments – selected based on a literature review of previous studies; and
- 11 lagoon alignments – selected based on the tidal range, water depth and coastline shape.
- Part B: Tidal Current (including Tidal Fences)
The original scope was to identify farms over 100MWp. However, this criteria was relaxed (to 60MWp) to account for most potentially economic locations in UK waters.- 20 known tidal current farm locations were selected from literature review.
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