Protracted UK efforts to get electricity from the bottom of the sea have moved ahead as a Scottish company said it was successfully delivering power to the grid from a tidal turbine system in the Shetland Islands. Nova Innovation, a group chaired by former big-six energy company boss Ian Marchant, said its project marked an advance in what has long promised to be an important source of renewable energy. Nova is developing the project in the Bluemull Sound, between the Shetland islands of Yell and Unst, with Belgian renewable energy group Elsa. Its move comes as the first phase of a MeyGen, a larger tidal power scheme, nears completion in the Pentland Firth between the Scottish mainland and the Orkney Islands. Nova first announced in March that it was exporting power from a device in the seabed that looks a little like a wind turbine. It has now successfully connected a second one to create an offshore tidal array. The total value of the project, which is due to get another three turbines by the end of next year, is £3.6m. Once finished it will supply enough electricity for about 300 houses. A £1bn tidal lagoon project proposed for Swansea stalled this year after ministers balked at the subsidies developers was seeking. The government has launched a review of tidal lagoon power headed by former UK energy minister Charles Hendry, which is due to be published later this year.
FT 28th Aug 2016 read more »