Nautricity ready to test 'economic' tidal device

Published on Thursday 28 April 2011 12:28

A STRATHCLYDE University spin-out company has developed a marine technology device, which it claims will produce the world's first domestically affordable electricity from a tidal source within the next year.

Nautricity will shortly start pre-commercial testing of its CoRMaT machine, which is based on a rotor system, before it is deployed in the waters of the European Marine Energy Centre off the coast of Orkney for further testing later this year.

The Glasgow firm is among a handful of companies that will be able to bid for the first round of Crown Estate licences for wave and tidal energy generation in the Pentland Firth.

Nautricity claims that unlike many of its competitors, its technology is the closest to producing commercially competitive electricity that could be supplied to the National Grid.

Although a number of wave and tidal devices are currently undergoing testing in Scotland, the costs presently associated with marine power generation are still too high to make it an affordable way of supplying electricity to homes.

According to the latest estimates, natural gas produces one megawatt per hour (MWh) of electricity for about 48.90, while the cost of offshore wind generation is about 57.80 per MWh.

Nautricity says most tidal machines are currently unable to produce electricity for less than several hundred pounds per MWh but the CoRMaT would be competitive with offshore power generation.

David Pratt, co-founder of Nautricity, said: "First generation tidal devices are nothing more than wind turbines in the sea. They require very heavy foundations and engineering to take place on the sea bed which means they have a very high fixed cost.

"Our device is small, easier to handle and engineer and significantly simpler to deploy. We have lots of small units in the water compared with a few very big units."