The Technology Context – B101
How The Orkney Islands tidal test facility and its possible impacts on future generations
Over the last few years, there has been a steadily increasing demand to develop technologies which are less damaging to the environment, and which can influence the way in which we live today. Car manufacturers have been designing engines, which are more economical, and which are less harmful to the environment, one example of this is the Lexus Hybrid engine. Other such technological developments include the London congestion charging hardware and software, but some may say that one of the greatest developments of all, is the ability to harness energy from the natural world, and enable us to power our homes with it. The world over, countries have begun developing or indeed, are now running different forms of technology to generate power , whether it be wind farms on top of hills or out at sea, or it be proposed solar panels in deserts, the push towards more green energy running in to national power grids seems to get harder and further every year.
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. Australia generates about 8% of their energy from another source of “natural power” known as Hydroelectricity, most of which is generated by “The Snowy Mountains Scheme” in New South Wales. There are however environmental concerns when it comes to traditional hydroelectricity generation, as it quite often requires the building of large dams, which then causes large areas of land to be flooded including natural habitats for wildlife. Another example of this sort of scheme which are much closer to home would be the work which was planned for the Seven barrage which again, would have involved the flooding of a sections of the Seven River, at the loss of local bird and animal habitats but which would also have caused the loss of the Seven Bore, an annual wave which passes up the river which the locals are desperately trying to save, claiming that the bore is not only unique, but that it generates income in the form of tourism.
In answer to the problem of mass flooding, schemes were designed and implemented (known as “Run-of-River”) which only required partial diversion of rivers through turbines, which then does not require large areas of land to be flooded, but which still generates large amounts of electricity. Larger scale examples of these “run-of-river” include the Pelamis wave converters that are in use around the world at the moment! 4 of the 750 watt wave converters are off shore of the Orkney Islands supplying power to 2000 homes. However, the islands are being used for a slightly different way of helping the environment whilst generating power. Over the last several years, a facility has been under construction on the Orkney Islands, its sole aim, to allow designers of tidal powered energy generators to test their devices in various conditions and use the power that is generated to power homes on the U.K national grid . 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”.
The Orkney Islands were chosen for the facility’s 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.
• Much shorter distance to offshore resources (This includes the 8 knot tidal runs, and the berths which are all at varying depths in the water)
• Suitable connections to the national grid.
• Proximity of sheltered water for construction.
The facility on the islands became operational and ready for prototypes to be tested on the 28th September 2007, after costing more than £5 million. The facility consists of a control centre (at Stromness), a power substation at Caldale ( on Eday) where each of the 5 berths will be connected to the national grid and the 5 berths themselves. Each of the berths will then be linked via a dedicated data cable to the control centre at Stromness so that developers can monitor how their devices are functioning.
The 5 berths have been constructed at varying heights in the water between 25 meters and 50 meters, thus giving the designers the opportunity to have their devices tested at various depths, again granting them the ability to see how their devices have performed, and giving them a glimpse of how they will perform if and when they go “live”. These berths are located in 2 different areas, the first is at Billia Croo, which is mainland Orkney, and the second is at the Fall of Warness, just off shore of Eday.
The facility however, isn’t designed just for U.K built machines, part of its primary purpose is to allow other countries to test their devices, and 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.
As this facility is the first of its kind, the next few years will prove whether more should be built around the world, giving everywhere that could utilise the benefits from such a facility the chance to develop and test prototypes so that they become more efficient, and more reliable. One of the major troubles with tidal devices at the moment, is that they can only be repaired during conditions which are safe, which often means that malfunctioning devices often have to be left at sea faulty, until the conditions are right for engineers to get to them and repair them, meaning many hours of energy generation lost, however with these test facilities, devices could be tested prior to “live deployment” to test for the optimum conditions, or whether there is a weakness in the design, which wasn’t apparent until it was thoroughly tested. In this way, the devices may last longer when deployed.
In the short term, these facilities are highly expensive, for what some may deem a low remuneration, and as there will always be at least a low impact on the local habitat, some may deem it totally unacceptable, however, in the long term, they will assist to decrease the amount of harmful gases which are pumped in to the atmosphere, which will protect the species on the planet as well as their habitats (for instance the coral reefs which are being destroyed by the rising temperature of the waters, and the various species living on the reefs), and in the long term, also save millions of pounds on several different fronts, including :-
• The designers – As they would be able to (as I have stated above) be able to test their machines for weaknesses and thus reduce malfunctions and thus reduce engineer deployment, and to enable total optimisation of the deployment of the device when it goes live.
• More efficient machines would mean more energy, which could then be sold, to other companies, or other countries if in surplus. It also would mean that there would be lower energy bills for customers.
• The company would gain income from charging other companies the use of the berths to test the prototypes.
This facility, and all those similar, which are developed in the future, will be key to research in to harnessing one of the strongest natural resources known to mankind. In the short term, they will produce very little power, for a great expense, but eventually machines that can power cities will emerge from the extensive research done. These machines will be more efficient, and will cost less to produce as a result of the unique research, which is being carried out at Orkney, and perhaps one day, many other sites around the world.
