MeyGen firm begins work on more efficient tidal turbines

THE company behind the MeyGen tidal stream project in the Pentland Firth is set to start manufacturing a new-style turbine which it hopes will reduce its operating costs.

Simec Atlantis Energy (SAE) and a privately-owned specialist engineering firm from Spain's Bay of Biscay have been conducting research and development on the initiative for almost a year and are now ready to give it the go-ahead.

The plan by SAE and its Spanish partner Asturfeito, which involves full-scale testing, could help reduce the cost of the technology.

The Spanish firm, which was founded in 1989, employs about 250 people and operates from four large workshops near the city of Aviles in the indusrial Asturias region.

Cutting the cost of generating electricity from the MeyGen site in the Inner Sound is a key aim of Simec Atlantis.

The scheme has been awarded about €1 million from two European Union funds.

Mr Drew Blaxland, SAE's director of turbine engineering services, said the grant will support the innovations required to take the MeyGen project enhancement forward with a specific focus on the turbine upgrades.

Meanwhile, last week Gills Harbour was busy as a forward shore base for three work boat vessels involved in sub-sea activities at the site. The catamaran Teal, the Orkney-based high-speed vessel Athenia and the Causeway Explorer were all involved in the exercise along with a team of divers.

Bill Mowat, a director of Gills Harbour Ltd, said he and his colleagues are very pleased to hear about SAE's cost-reducing plans.

He said: "Cost reductions are necessary to ensure that Caithness ends up with a sizeable tidal-stream energy industry in the longer term and that will help get a state-of-the-art advanced computer data process centre with 30 highly skilled jobs within the next few years."

Mr Mowat was also pleased to see the harbour being actively used again in connection with the MeyGen operation.

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