Top award for MeyGen engineer
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A YOUNG engineer working on the MeyGen tidal energy project in the Pentland Firth has won a top award.
Daniel Coles, a project resource analyst with Simec Atlantis Energy – the company behind the renewables scheme – won the accolade at the Young Professionals Green Energy Awards sponsored by industry body Scottish Renewables. He took the analyst award – one of nine in the achievements section.
Daniel's work led to a 20 per cent increase in the power output from the four pioneering tidal-stream turbines installed in the Inner Sound.
The Manchester University graduate has been working for two years at the company's headquarters in Edinburgh. He is responsible for resource assessment, array optimisation and analysis of turbines performance.
He did his PhD doctorate at the University of Southampton where he compiled a detailed inventory of the tidal-stream resources around the isle of Alderney in the Channel Islands.
After doing further research at London University's Imperial College, he was hired by Simec Atlantis as an analyst on assessing the tidal stream resource of its MeyGen subsea site in detail.
He looked at the performance of the initial four turbines and assessed the best layout for optimising electricity generating output from future turbines in the Inner Sound, including the two additional two megawatt Atlantis AR 2000 turbines which will be installed in a multimillion-pound deal in 2019/20 as Project Stroma.
Gills Harbour's marine renewables energy director Bill Mowat congratulated the engineer on his success.
He said: "Dr Coles is clearly playing an important role in the development of this project which is important for the future economy of Caithness.
"Clearly what Daniel has achieved so far should act as a pointer to young local folk who wish to participate professionally in the advancement of tidal-stream electricity as an important component of the UK's – and much of the coastal world's – future clean energy mix."
