Atlantis Resources has informed that the first power has been produced from the MeyGen project site in the Pentland Firth, Scotland.
The turbine, supplied by Andritz Hydro Hammerfest (AHH), was installed last week and plugged into the pre-laid cable which connects back to the onshore control center and grid export point.
Both the turbine and cable installation works were completed by James Fisher Marine Services, using the Olympic Ares .
Over the past few days, AHH has been working to establish communications with the turbine and verify that the on-board safety and monitoring systems are operational.
Now, working with ABB as the suppliers of the onshore frequency converters, the AHH team has begun the process of powering up the turbine to tune the control system for optimized generation.
During this program, the project is exporting electricity for the first time, using only the tidally driven water flows which rush through the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth.
This turbine is the first of four 1.5MW tidal stream turbines to become operational at the site for the first 6MW phase of a total build out of almost 400MW.
Tim Cornelius , Atlantis CEO, said: “The success of this first phase is a foundation for the tidal industry to build upon to ensure we develop a new energy sector which can deliver clean, predictable and affordable power from the UK’s own abundant resources. When it comes to energy, we think consumers should be asking for the moon, and we know how to harness it.”
Construction for the next 6MW phase, supported by a €17 million grant from the EC’s NER300 fund, is due to begin next year.
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