Wick staff engineer a first for tidal project
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The equipment was produced by Wick staff at Kongsberg Maritime Ltd in a first for the Caithness team.
Bill Baxter, the manufacturing site manager, told the John O’Groat Journal this week the work employed a total of between eight and 10 people and lasted six to eight weeks.
“It is the first stand-alone environmental monitoring equipment we have manufactured at Wick and we hope other contracts will follow. The contract was work for the company and helped keep our staff busy,” he said.
The equipment measures noise levels of the prototype tidal devices to assess the impact they could have on marine life. Kongsberg has carried out similar investigations elsewhere in the UK and in Ireland.
The study is under way and is due to be completed by the end of the summer. It is being carried out in preparation for the planned MeyGen 400 megawatt tidal project in the Inner Sound which could be installed by 2020.
The results will be used by energy consultancy Xodus Group and MeyGen during the public consultation on the development.
Kongsberg staff at Wick are not involved in measuring the noise levels. That part of the operation is being undertaken by company employees from Southampton.
Kongsberg’s offshore general manager David Shand said: “The results of the studies being carried out will affect how the devices are positioned on the seabed, to deliver optimum power while having minimal impact on marine life.”
The MeyGen tidal project will cover over 3.5 square kilometres in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth.
Meanwhile, GDF Suez – a French state-owned business and one of the world’s biggest utility companies – has acquired a 45 per cent stake in MeyGen.
That happened after GDF Suez paid £6.84 billion for the remaining 30 per cent of International Power, one of the companies in the MeyGen consortium. The French company acquired 70 per cent of the business in January 2011. It now has the remaining 30 per cent in a deal which will come into effect in July.
The changes mean that GDF-Suez will have a 45 per cent stake in MeyGen. Morgan Stanley, the New York merchant bank, also has 45 per cent while 10 per cent is owned by the Atlantic Resources Corporation.
Bill Mowat, the chairman of Gills Harbour Ltd, said: “I think having the French on board will do no harm at all to Inner Sound prospects, especially with the history of long-term energy industry co-operation in fast reactors.”
Mr Mowat also pointed out that academics at the University of Hull are carrying out research which could revolutionise the tidal energy industry.
The team is studying the way tidal stream turbines interact with the seabed in an attempt to make the turbines work more efficiently.
The findings could influence the shape of tidal stream energy generators around the world, he said.
n MeyGen is aiming to recruit two specialist engineers who will be based at its London office.
The company is looking for a senior turbine array engineer as well as a turbine array engineer.
Mr Mowat commented: “I’m sure that this must be a world debut for the new profession of tidal array engineer.
“This seems to be a new specialist engineering profession or discipline being launched to gain solutions to questions being posed as moves continue into getting the very best electric power output from the Inner Sound’s tidal stream turbines.”
