Futuristic designs of Orbital Marine Power’s tidal stream turbine technology have received recognition at iF Design Awards which celebrate well-designed industrial products.
The iF Desing Awards, which received almost 10,000 submissions from 60 countries in 2020, identified the collaborative work of Orbital Marine and Designworks as a winning design within the Professional Concept category.
Orbital Marine and Designworks, the innovation studio for the BMW Group and global creative consultancy, announced their design partnershi p last year when they released concept images of Orbital’s floating energy generation technology, with the utility scale Orbital OA model and a smaller Riverkinetic model included in the line-up.
The vision for the OA model sees turbines becoming less like traditional vessels, and more akin to autonomous power generation fleets in the future, according to Orbital Marine.
Andrew Scott , CEO of Orbital Marine, said: “As a pioneering energy company setting out to help turn the tide on climate change, creating a future vision, and excitement around that, is hugely important to us, which was why we engaged Designworks in a collaborative partnership. To have the outputs from that exercise recognised in the iF Design forum is a genuine honour”.
Laura Robin , studio director at Designworks LA Studio, added: “Sharing the honour of this iF Design Award 2021 with Orbital Marine Power is a great achievement. This global recognition acknowledges design’s importance in envisioning our best future. And what better design opportunity than to partner with a company that tangibly demonstrates new forms of clean energy – producing meaningful change for people and planet”.
Orbital recently launched its first commercial O2 tidal turbine which is starting grid-connected operation in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland.
Resembling a spaceship in appearance, the O2 is the most powerful tidal stream turbine in the world.
At 74 metres in length, it is approximately the size of a Boeing 747. With a generation capacity of 2MW, the single unit can supply around 2,000 UK homes with clean, predictable energy.