Development of tidal stream generators

Note that tidal barrages or lagoons operate on a different principle, generating power by impounding the rising and falling tide.

Historically, development has largely been focused around Europe, but devices have been built and tested in North America – including at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), Japan, and elsewhere.

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) was set up in Orkney in 2003, and developed a tidal test site in the Fall of Warness, to the west of the island of Eday.

French manufacturer Alstom acquired Tidal Generation Ltd in 2012, but this part of the business was sold to General Electric in 2015.

[20] The concept is designed to be simple, with an optimised waterwheel (called a Kinetic Keel) mounted between two hulls of a barge, moored by foundations build from old train cars filled with concrete.

[23] As part of the contract to test at FORCE Berth D, BigMoon has to remove before the end of 2024 the OpenHydro turbine that was abandoned there in July 2018 when that company went into administration.

[25] A phase 2 Flumill tidal device is currently being developed, where the screws and generators are mounted from a catamaran barge.

[30] HydroQuest is a French developer of vertical-axis turbines, generating electricity from river and tidal currents, based in Grenoble.

[34][35] In collaboration with Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie and renewable energy company Qair, Hydroquest are developing the FloWatt project.

[36][37] LHD New Energy Corporation have developed the Zhoushan tidal power station near Xiushan island, Daishan County, China.

[43] Magallanes Thas been awarded Contracts for Difference (CfD) to supply subsidised electricity to the GB National Grid, at Morlais and at EMEC.

[46] The larger 1.2 MW SeaGen turbine was installed in Strangford Lough in May 2008, and connected tot the Irish electricity grid in July.

OpenHydro Group Ltd was an Irish developer of tidal stream turbines, acquired by Naval Energies (then DCNS) in 2013, but ceased trading in 2018.

Orbital Marine Power Ltd is an Orkney-based developer of floating tidal stream turbines that have twin rotors either side of a long tubular hull.

[58] Proteus is a majority shareholder in Normandie Hydroliennes, which is planning to deploy a 12 MW pilot tidal farm at Raz Blanchard in 2025.

[57][59] In August 2024, PMR started building an AR1100 turbine to be deployed in the Naru Strait to power the Gotō Islands in Japan.

They developed a fully-submerged oscillating hydrofoil device, designed to work in shallow water, with horizontal blades that moved up and down in the passing current.

[68] Sabella SAS was a French SME based in Quimper, Brittany that has been developing tidal turbines since 2008, however the company was placed into receivership in October 2023.

[76] The company was founded as Atlantis Resources, and developed the 1.5 MW AR1500 turbine, a three-bladed horizontal-axis seabed mounded device, three of which are installed at MeyGen.

[61] Sustainable Marine Energy Ltd (SME) was a developer of floating tidal stream turbines, founded in 2012 but went into administration in August 2023.

[80] Their first platform, PLAT-O, was a submerged mid-water-column device, with two 50 kW Schottel SIT turbines, mounted between three buoyant hulls.

[83] The turbine was tested at FORCE in the Grand Passage, delivering the first floating tidal power to the Canadian grid in April 2022.

[90] A 400 kW prototype was installed in Ramsey Sound, Wales in December 2015 after sitting on the quayside at Pembroke Dock for over a year.

[92] Eco2 in conjunction with TEL had planned to install an array of nine devices St David's Head, to the north of Ramsey Sound.

[98] The turbine rotor was 18 m in diameter, mounted on a 22 m long nacelle, with a mass of under 150 t.[99] It had cut-in, rated, and maximum flow speeds of 1 m/s, 2.7 m/s, and 5 m/s respectively.

[100] The TGL turbines were a three-bladed horizontal-axis design which could yaw to face the incoming tide, driven by a thruster on the rear of the nacelle.

They nacelle of the turbine was buoyant, which allowed it to towed to site then installed onto the subsea tripod foundation using a winch system operated from small workboats.

[101] Tocardo BV is a Dutch tidal stream turbine developer, jointly owned by QED Naval and Hydrowing as of January 2020.

[107] In the BlueTec project a floating platform was moored near the Dutch island of Texel, with a Tocardo turbine mounted beneath it.

Over the years, many different tidal stream turbines have been deployed and tested at sea, and have delivered power to the local electricity grid.