Submerged in about 40 meters (44 yards) of water off Scotland’s coast, a turbine has been spinning for more than six years…
The MeyGen tidal energy project off the coast of Scotland has four turbines producing 1.5 megawatts each, enough electricity collectively to power up to 7,000 homes annually.
The problem is not that there isn’t enough tidal power. The problem is that the pentland firth is both fast enough and deep enough. Orkney alone probably has enough tidal power to serve all of Scotland’s needs, but most of the tide races are no more than 5 meters deep. The meygen turbine has a 18 m diameter so it’s hard to find places that can support it in a way that doesn’t pose a danger for surface vessels but also has a current fast enough to generate a meaningful amount of electricity.
If we’re going to get to 100m diameter tidal power systems in hundreds of meters of water we’ve got to start somewhere.