How Could Technology Being Tested at The Orkney Island Tidal Test Facility Improve The Environment For Future Generations

Image taken from "http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2005/12/16132016"
The Orkney Islands facility enables countries all over the world to bring their equipment and prototypes and connect them to one of 5 deep sea “berths” for testing of the equipment, which at the same time will then generate power for the U.K power grid. The facility and its berths themselves are on or just off sure of one of the smaller, less fertile islands known as “Eday”. David Ross of the Scottish paper “The Herald” said “When all five cables are utilised to full capacity, there will be enough power generated for 1500 houses, but Eday is really about developing prototypes”. Already several companies are involved with the facility, including a Dutch and an Irish company both who intend to use the unique conditions off the coast of the islands to test their prototype designs for electricity producing machines.

The Orkney Islands were chosen for the facilities location due to several key factors.
• The constant and high waves enable the products to be tested thoroughly, where as in some other locations the wave height, and consistency are less predictable, which means that at some times, the prototypes may not be able to function as well as they could
• The island that houses the main facility is the least fertile of the islands, meaning that its construction had a much lower impact on the environment and the local habitats of animals then if it had been constructed elsewhere.
Why is this important?
Well, over the last few years society has been pounded with demands to go greener, and to decrease the damage being done to our environment, and to save it for future generations but which can influence the way in which we live today. There are many companies developing and testing technology, everything from carrier bags to the cars on the roads (for example the Lexus Hybrid Drive engine) are being made more “green”. This doesn’t only apply to England, it applies all over the world! There are very few if any countries which have yet to begin some form of “greener living”
New Yorks largest wind farm project at Maple Ridge begun producing electricity in December 2005 and by 2010 they expect to be generating 25% of New Yorks power requirement.

water turbine

Image taken from Wikipedia "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_turbine"

Australia generate about 8% of their energy is produced from another source of “natural power” known as Hydroelectricity, most of which is generated by “The Snowy Mountains Scheme” in New South Wales, using turbines like that which is in the picture above. This however raises serious environmental concerns as traditional hydroelectricity generation quite often requires the building of large dams which then causes large areas of land to be flooded including natural habitats for wildlife.
In answer to this problem, schemes were designed and implemented (known as “Run-of-River”) which only required partial diversion of rivers through a turbines which then does not require large areas of land to be flooded, but which still generates large amounts of electricity. It is turbines such as these which are being thoroughly tested at the Orkney Islands facility.
Larger scale examples of these “run-of-river” include the Pelamis wave converters which are in use around the world at the moment! 4 of the 750 watt wave converters are off sure of the Orkney Islands supplying power to 2000 homes.

Why Is This Topic Relevant To Me?
I live on a peninsula which has long been known as a fishing village. Over the decades, it has seen much of its land claimed by the sea (My granddads place of birth is now 1 and a half miles off the coast). This highlights to me that projects such as this are very necessary so that we can learn to use natural power, and lower the damage to the environment whilst maintaining our development.

Plan Of Enquiry

I shall be further investigating websites to gain what information out of them that I can, including:-
• http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1723470.0.0.php
• http://www.rtel.com/orkney.aspx
• http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2004/08/10103847
• http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1722492.0.0.php
• http://www.sustainableenergy.qld.edu.au/sources/hydro.html

Unfortunately, as the facility is so far away, I will not be able to visit it, however, I am going to get in contact with them and request any information which they are able to give to me. I aim to make use of a both a quantative and qualative approach to examine the cause and effect of such facilities on the local environment and the local community, and their ability to supply power to homes in the local area.