ScottishPower is among the leading renewables protagonists in the UK, with an ambitious investment programme – primarily in on and offshore wind. But the group is also ploughing money into marine renewables in the hope that wave and tide will make a viable contribution to Britain’s long-term electricity requirements.
With perhaps 25 gigawatts of wave and tidal power generation potential in UK waters, the prize is large. Of this, 18GW is wave energy. The 2020 target is some 2GW each of wave and tidal, which ambition looks increasingly unrealistic because of the financial crisis and slow industry progress.
Alan Mortimer, ScottishPower Renewables head of policy told Energy that the group was confident that investing in wave and tidal energy technologies would pay off and that it retained its faith in two technologies especially – the Norwegian Hammerfest Strom device, based on the Lanstrom open turbine, and the Pelamis articulated wave device developed by Scottish company Pelamis.
Indeed, in September, 2008, ScottishPower announced what was described as the world’s largest tidal power project, with three sites under evaluation: Scotland’s Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay, plus a location off the North Antrim coast of Northern Ireland.
Moreover, the company said then that it expected planning applications to be submitted to the Scottish Government and Northern Irish Assembly in summer 2009. Each site is a candidate for an array of up to 20 one-megawatt machines.
Mortimer said the Hammerfest Strom and Pelamis selection was made following extensive evaluation of a marketplace now flooded with more than 80 different concepts.
“It’s impossible to perfectly pick the winners at this stage,” said Mortimer.
“We accept that, but we believe these are concepts with good prospects of coming through and, by working with these companies, we get quality information that helps us gain confidence in what they can do and on what timescale.
“It helps us to then consider how we can develop projects using the technology, the sort of locations that we’re going to need … grid standards that will be required; all these interface issues are important for us.
“The plans with Pelamis remain to move on to a four-units (each would be rated 750kW) project at EMEC on Orkney, which we intend to do within the next two to three years, depending on how the device performs elsewhere. The Orkney project will be a first step to give us confidence through owning and operating the devices before considering bigger projects.”
To illustrate how slow progress can be, ScottishPower linked with Pelamis four or five years ago, and it could be eight years more before there are trial machines out there with the SP brand on them.
But Mortimer is sanguine: “It is a long-term game. We’re absolutely clear about that. We need to balance the rate of development against risk so that, at each step, we’re carefully assessing performance and getting the lessons back so we can move on to the next bigger step, but with appropriately managed risk.”
His hope is that the company will be ready to order two or so years from now.
“The manufacturing time for these units is not too long … not like wind turbines, where we have two to three-year lead times because of supply and demand. Twelve to 18 months is a sensible timeframe to be allowing for that at the moment.
“Securing grid can take longer, depending on whether reinforcement is required. That needs to be factored in.”
With tidal, there’s more uncertainty at ScottishPower as the company’s marine-renewables team is still going through the detailed design stage and trying to get a decent grip on likely costs.
But what made the Hammerfest Strom device stand out?
“Like I said, we can’t pick winners with perfect certainty. However, we do like the concept … it’s very simple, based around technology already largely utilised elsewhere, whether in the wind industry or offshore oil&gas.
“I think the open rotor … and we can’t be certain … will be the better way forward from an environmental point of view … low-solidity open rotor which is turning at a relatively low speed and there’s no containing effect.
“I have to question, without perfect knowledge, whether adding a duct is outweighed by disadvantages … extra costs and additional loadings on the device. We know that loadings in this environment are very large and any major addition adds a very large potential load to the device under extreme conditions.
“Our aim is to secure consent for at least one of the locations at some point next year. That gives us the option to move to deployment once we’re comfortable with the first device, which we expect to be tested throughout 2010. We believe we can get an application completed and submitted by the end of this year.
“The timescale for application is realistic. I think we’re seeing a pragmatic approach from the environmental bodies, one that accepts that really what we need to do is prove through doing. That means getting units in the water to rigorously monitor their impacts before we responsibly roll out on a bigger scale in the future. That’s the best way forward.”
Full deployment of one or more arrays could come around 2011-12, though Mortimer is cautious about making a firm commitment at this time because there are too many uncertainties.
One of the big issues with maritime renewables is British content which, in the case of offshore wind, is limited. Might the situation be better with wave and tidal devices?
Mortimer acknowledges the responsibility incumbent on companies such as ScottishPower, even though it is driven by stock-market quarterlies and the imperative of maximising value to shareholders. That SP is now a subsidiary of Spanish group Iberdrola probably brings additional pressure.
“Obviously, we’re working with Pelamis … a Scottish company that tries to get its work done in Scotland, otherwise the UK. We want to see that maintained. We acknowledge that the political support for this sector is predicated on the potential for jobs creation. Because of that, we do have a responsibility to steer the industry to doing as much as it can locally.
“What we’re seeing in marine is quite different to what we saw in wind, which was already off the shelf by the time the market in the UK got going.
“With marine, technologies are immature and need help. There is a role for utilities to get more involved, I would say.
“That’s what we sought to do at Hammerfest. That is quite a departure for us, but absolutely the right thing to do.”
It seems, too, that Mortimer appreciates the value that North Sea oil&gas can bring to the renewables table.
“We’ve seen first-hand the benefit and need for involvement from the oil&gas sector through Hammerfest because they have a major shareholder in StatoilHydro. Their expertise has often fed into that project. And that has been very valuable.
“We absolutely support the need for Scottish oil&gas supply-chain companies to be doing more, and I want to see that encouraged.”
However, Mortimer admits that the dialogue to date has been insufficient, despite All-Energy offering an excellent interface for discussions.
“We haven’t done enough. I’ll be quite honest about that. And I think the renewables industry needs to be doing more to bring oil&gas in. I think Government has a role in this.
“When the ImechE (Institute of Mechanical Engineers) did its report … they noted the need for more oil&gas sector involvement, and that that could be difficult because the oil&gas sector tends to expect higher rates of return. But, as I said, Hammerfest is using companies in the oil&gas supply chain already.”