Scotland’s renewables industry is expected to benefit from a new project to develop sophisticated sensors for underwater tidal turbines.
The research is a collaborative project between the fledgling Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and Censis, Scotland’s Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems, who aim to cut the cost and boost confidence in the mandatory monitoring of how subsea turbines impact on their environment.
New sensors developed under the initiative – the first joint project between ORE Catapult and Censis – will be installed on turbine blades.
As well as constantly monitoring environmental impacts, the technology would give out a warning when there is a risk of a collision with a tidal device.
The project partners will consider whether sensor technology from other industries can be used, or if an altogether new type is needed.
Regulations stipulate that tidal-energy developers must analyse the environment around a proposed site for two years prior to installation, as well as during the construction phase and throughout the plant’s operation. This is likely to be at least 20-25 years.
Current monitoring processes can be very expensive, involving teams of watchers on the seashore and a mixture of subsea listening devices.
As well as the cost, results are often inconclusive as it is difficult to tally surface observations with events beneath the waves.
ORE Catapult project manager Vicky Coy said: “We have some of the best tidal resources around the UK and are already at the forefront of industry research, leading in the design and demonstration of this technology.
“Scotland in particular has a number of rich tidal-energy sites, with the Pentland Firth and Orkney waters among the greatest in the UK.
“A key aspect of this project is to simplify and reduce the costs from what is in effect the subsea equivalent of the planning process.
“Tidal-energy developers tend to be small and medium-sized companies, with limited resources, so any costs which can be removed at the same time as improving safety will be welcomed.
“We’ve had a lot of positive engagement from both the business and academic communities, and we’re looking to harness this support further when we move to the next stages of this initiative.”
Censis project manager Gavin Burrows added: “It’s most likely that sensors, whether these are brought in from another industry or developed specifically for this purpose, will be built into the blades of subsea turbines.
“This could have applications in a range of other offshore devices, not just in the tidal-energy market.”
Mr Burrows said there was significant potential to export skills and expertise from the project, particularly as the partners move into the demonstration and commercialisation phases.
He added: “The potential is there for our academic and business communities to take further leaps forward in the tidal-energy market.
“Our aim is to make this happen and create economic value out of the research for Scotland.”
A string of developments in Scotland’s tidal-energy industry are at various stages of the planning process.
The most high-profile of these is the MeyGen scheme, which aims to deploy up to 398 megawatts of offshore tidal stream turbines by the early 2020s.
ORE Catapult is the UK’s flagship technology innovation and research centre for offshore wind, wave and tidal-energy, aiming to deliver prioritised research underpinned by world-class test and demonstration facilities.
It was established in 2013 by the UK Government and is one of seven “catapults” set up by innovation agency Innovate UK in high-growth industries.
Working with the industry, academia and government, it is intended to reduce the cost of offshore renewable-energy and create economic benefit.
Also established in 2013, with an initial £10million in funding, Censis is expected to deliver 150 collaborative research and development projects.
It aims to bring together commercial innovation and academic research north of the border, and is already helping more than 170 Scottish companies working directly on sensor system technologies and contributing an estimated £2.6billion a year to the economy.
Censis is funded by the Scottish Funding Council, with additional support from the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
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