Orbital Marine selected for EU's EURO-TIDES project
Pamela Largue
Posted on: 25 October 2023
The European Commission has announced the partners to deliver a multi-turbine tidal energy project called EURO-TIDES.
The European Commission’s Horizon Europe Programme has announced the project partners to deliver a multi-turbine tidal energy project called EURO-TIDES.
The project partners include marine energy company Orbital Marine, as well as Ocean Energy Europe, Laborelec, Marasoft, European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Center for Wind Power Drives (CWD) of RWTH Aachen University, Energie De La Lune and the University of Edinburgh.
The project aligns with the European Commission's goal of moving from single turbine deployments to multi-turbine arrays in an effort to maximise tidal stream technology in reaching net zero targets.
In order to speed up commercialisation of the technology and scale deployment, the EURO-TIDES project will work to establish manufacturing solutions that facilitate series production.
The partners will also collect operational performance data of Orbital's technology and optimise long term operation and maintenance programmes.
Have you read?
NREL prepares four wave energy devices for PacWave South deployment
CorPower Ocean deploys C4 wave energy converter in Portugal
Andrew Scott, CEO of Orbital Marine Power, said: “Orbital is committed to ensuring tidal stream energy makes a material contribution to decarbonising energy systems while supporting a just transition through the creation of a new industrial sector.
"The endorsement that comes from this selection is a huge boost to that objective while also enabling us, and our project partners, to accelerate that positive vision. We are looking forward to moving forwards with EURO-TIDES at pace early in 2024.”
According to Ocean Energy Europe, there exists and estimated global resource of 800-1200TWh of tidal stream energy which could contribute significantly to the decarbonisation of our energy systems.
As tidal currents are not influenced by weather conditions, but only by the well-known cycles of the moon, sun and earth, this source of power is highly reliable and predictable, making it ideal for grid balancing.
Towards the end of 2022, the European tidal current sector reached 80GWh of cumulative power produced. Tidal power production is expected to accelerate with the deployment of pilot farms scheduled for 2023 and beyond.
