A Scots energy company has achieved a ‘world first’ by generating 50GWH of electricity from tidal power.
SAE Renewables said the achievement took place at its tidal stream array off the coast of the Pentland Firth during the early hours of Monday.
The Edinburgh-based firm’s MeyGen site, located just 2km from Scotland’s north-east tip, has been operational since 2017, with its longest-deployed turbine in operation since December 2018.
The turbines are located 20m below the water at the 3.5km site, which covers some of the fastest flowing waters in the UK.
READ MORE: Scottish company's value soars more than £300m on bid news
Graham Reid, CEO SAE Renewables, described the news as a “significant milestone in delivering tidal stream power at scale”.
He said: “We are immensely proud of what we have achieved, supported by our committed and loyal stakeholders in the Scottish Government.
"These figures might not seem big compared to technologies that have been state-funded for decades, but when they are compared to what they produced at the same stage of their development phase, we are already producing more value for the UK economy, more electricity, and a better price for consumers.
"Tidal can and does work, we just need to get more turbines in the water.”
To put the 50GWH of electricity achievement into perspective, Mr Reid added that the total global generation from all other tidal devices and sites is less than 50% of that amount.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel