Walkways that could bridge Pentland Firth

By JULIA HORTON
Published on 18/10/2012 00:07

A CYCLE path across one of Scotland’s most treacherous stretches of water could be created by improving the design of tidal energy developments, a Scottish expert has suggested.

Professor Stephen Salter, who invented the wave power “duck”, said that maintenance access bridges linking turbines could allow cyclists to bike across the Pentland Firth.

The walkways removed the need for divers to maintain turbines, and could also be used in marine rescues.

Turbines with rotors turning on a vertical rather than horizontal axis would increase power generated on the Firth more than “tenfold”, the Edinburgh University academic said.

Speaking before presenting his research at the International Conference on Ocean Energy in Dublin yesterday, he said: “I was trying to show how access for maintenance would be much easier and cheaper than having to get diving teams in. It was a little bit of a joke but not entirely. It [cycling] would be fine in good weather.”