Is The Tide Turning

September 3, 2010

With recorded wind at a 180 year low, and two Major European Utilities Companies involved in the Offshore Wind sector seeking Construction Debt finance from the Banks, now could be the ideal opportunity for Wave and Tidal Power Companies to gain a foothold in the race for a more economical and sustainable Renewable Energy Supply.

In addition a recent Survey indicated that the average yield from Wind Generation could be as low as 20% – 30%, with one instance below 5%, suggesting that a more reliable and predictable Tidal System could show a much higher efficiency rating.

A number of existing Tidal and Wave Power Systems are approaching the stage where prototypes have given sufficient confidence to Designers, Manufacturers and Investors to progress to full scale Systems being built and deployed in identified operating locations around the UK.

Other News

Given the above it will be no surprise that we are pressing on with our own Systems and whilst we await Academic Reports and conclusions for our first System, in order to seek further funding and move the Project to the next stage, work on our second System prototype is progressing to plan and within Budget.

Completion of this prototype will enable early testing and ‘Proof of Concept’ confirmation. For sure there will need to to be some degree of fine tuning but this is to be expected with what is, in principle, an extremely simple idea but one which entails a greater level of design and detail.

Alan Newton, C Eng, MRINA.