MAXBlade project launched
MAXBlade, a project aiming to maximise tidal energy generation, has been launched at Edinburgh University’s FastBlade facility.
The €10m project, funded by the European Union and UK Research and Innovation, aims to deliver a range of innovations to improve the performance of tidal turbines and reduce costs.
It will investigate the full lifecycle of tidal turbine blades, from materials, manufacture and operation, to decommissioning and recyclability. The project’s long-term aim is to ‘ensure the European composite sector becomes the international leader in tidal blade manufacture’.
MAXBlade plans to increase the area harnessed by Scottish tidal technology company Orbital Marine Power to generate power – known as the rotor swept area – by 70 per cent, to over 1000m2.
According to the team, MAXBlade will increase the length of the turbine blades from 10 to 13m, making them the longest of their kind. They added that boosting blade length will have the ‘single greatest impact on reducing the cost of tidal energy’.
Modelling by Edinburgh University’s Institute of Energy Systems estimates £40bn could be generated for the UK economy by harnessing wave and tidal energy.
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