Orbital Marine Power

As of 28 July 2021[update], it is the most powerful tidal turbine in the world and is anchored in the Fall of Warness off Eday, Orkney Islands.

The company was rebranded as Orbital Marine Power in 2019, alongside a crowdfunding campaign that raised £7m towards constructing their first commercial turbine, the O2.

The SR250 was constructed by Harland & Wolff in Belfast in 2010, being launched early in 2011 and towed to the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

At the time this represented more power from a single turbine than had been generated cumulatively by the wave and tidal sector in Scotland over the 12 years prior to the launch of the SR2000.

[10] The O2 incorporates key innovations and lessons from the company's previous prototype, the SR2000, that, on a like-for-like basis, enable a 35% improvement in yield at the EMEC site.

[9] The twin rotors have a combined swept area of over 600 square metres, the largest ever on a single tidal generating platform to date.

The blades have the ability to pitch through 360°, enabling power to be captured from both tidal directions without need to yaw the entire platform.

Orbital are working with Lloyd's Register to certify the turbine against International Electrotechnical Commission TS 62600-4, initial aiming for an IECRE Feasibility Statement, before full certification which would formally allow the move to serial production.

Orbital announced in October 2023 they were successful in applying for the Horizon Europe sustainable tidal farms call, and would be leading the EURO-TIDES project to develop a 9.6 MW array.

[22] Orbital announced in May 2024 that Global Energy Group had been appointed as the preferred supplier to manufacture the turbines for these initial Orkney CfD projects.

[23] Orbital have also secured an option agreement from Crown Estate Scotland and a grid connection for a 30 MW array to be constructed in the Westray Firth, to the north of the existing O2 deployment.