Trials are moving in the right direction
A MULTI-million-pound test facility which can simulate the sea conditions in the Pentland Firth has been going through its final commissioning trials.
The FloWave Test Tank (TT) has been developed by a team from Edinburgh University and can model the effects of swift-flowing sea currents combined with big, multi-directional swells in a laboratory setting.
The £13 million FloWave TT impressed Bill Mowat, chairman of
Gills Harbour Ltd, when he saw it in action.
Mr Mowat said the facility can simulate sea conditions anywhere in waters around Europe’s entire continental shelf. Generating electricity from tides and waves has been the driving force behind the project but it could also be used to reduce costs for offshore wind farms or deep-water oil and gas recovery systems.
"Hopefully, it will play a substantial part in efforts to devise the most efficient and reliable means of electricity generation from both tidal streams and waves," said Mr Mowat. He described the test tank as "one of the biggest and most complex scientific instruments ever devised and built in Scotland".
Early tests have shown the facility works and it is expected to be in "commercial action" at its site near Blackford Hill in Edinburgh for the first time within months.
"This will be on a controllable laboratory scale and with a realistic complexity that has never previously been attempted nor seen," continued Mr Mowat.
The circular tank, with a diameter of 30 metres, holds more water than Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool. The aim of the test facility is to help with the design of prototype turbines and associated devices which would be used to extract marine electricity from areas such as the Pentland Firth in the future.
Gills Harbour lies on the doorstep of the Pentland Firth tide streams, where the first demonstration array is planned to be installed in the water on the 30 metre deep seabed of the Inner Sound during 2015.
Chief technician Thomas Davey put the test device through its paces, including simulation of multi-directional waves which are a feature of phenomena such as the Merry Men of Mey.
"It has been a privilege to see this unique Scottish tool for tidal stream research and development in action during a pre-commercial test. It will become available to the nascent tidal industry within the next month or two," said Mr Mowat.
"I have repeatedly said that Pentland Firth tidal stream electricity will only become a long-term industry for Caithness, rather than a flash in the pan, if costs can be significantly reduced with safety standards being retained or enhanced.
"Gills Harbour Ltd is determined to play a part in this for much wider benefit. FloWave TT is showing that there is more than one way of metaphorically skinning a cat. Scotland now has a unique facility to help in this commercialisation process.
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"In future, there could even be safety benefits in testing precision scale models of standard multi-cat vessels, known to be favoured in turbine deployment in extreme conditions here to cut the risks to on-board technicians and crews to the absolute minimum," added Mr Mowat.
The FloWave TT is managed by a not-for-profit subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh and was substantially funded through the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.