Islay Tidal Energy Scheme

Islay Tidal Energy Scheme

The Scottish government has approved the Islay tidal energy project to build a 10-megawatt array of 10 tidal turbines. It will be the world's largest tidal power array and will generate enough electricity to power more than 5,000 homes, trebling the current capacity of marine energy projects in the UK. There is currently 3.4MW of marine energy installed capacity installed in the UK.

Scottish Power Renewables is to invest £40m to install the turbines in the waters off Islay. The waters around Islay and Jura have been chosen because they offer strong tidal flows and at the same time are relatively sheltered from storms.

The Islay tidal energy array will utilise Hammerfest Strom tidal turbines, which have been tested in Norwegian waters and in Orkney.

There is currently 3.4MW of marine energy installed capacity deployed in the UK.

The Islay tidal energy array could soon be dwarfed by the much larger scheme planned for the Pentland Firth, where there are proposals for 1,600 megawatts of production.

Scotland and the UK generally are seen as world leaders in tidal energy research, but the US and Canada are both investing heavily in the field.