InToTidal focused on the supporting technologies and methodologies used to simplify and optimise the installation of floating tidal stream turbines.
These turbines can provide predictable, reliable power to the electrical power grid, or to standalone power systems. A significant element within the deployment costs of these devices are the systems used to hold the devices in place – the anchors and moorings, as well a way to protect the umbilical used to send the power to the shore. These formed individual work packages within the project.
A single turbine platform was used by Tocardo to demonstrate many of the principles of the project work packages as a stepping stone towards a larger Universal Floating System (UFS) which was intended to house 5 turbines. This single turbine deployment at EMECs tidal test site in the Orkney isles provided information used by project partner IFREMER in their scale model testing, looking into the design of the full scale moorings.
External pressures meant that the development of this UFS fell outwith the timeline of the project and the resources of the project were refocused on one particular work package that developed a submersible drill rig for the installation of rock anchors.
A single rock anchor can replace many hundreds of tonnes of gravity moorings, and is seen as the next step in reducing the cost and environmental impact of mooring large renewable energy structures in rocky seabeds.The potential economic and environmental savings are considerable, and are hoped to provide a step change in the cost of deploying tidal turbines, as well as cost reductions in other offshore industries such as wave energy, offshore wind and aquaculture.
Leask Marine led the work package, designing and fabricating a bespoke rig that was displayed as the centrepiece of All Energy 2019 in Glasgow. EMEC prepared a cutting edge monitoring system to capture the acoustic signature of the drill in action.
