'Most powerful' tidal turbine generating electricity at EMEC

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The world’s most powerful tidal turbine - Orbital O2 - has commenced grid connected power generation at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. 

Orbital Marine Power’s 2MW O2 – a floating turbine anchored in the Fall of Warness – is connected via a subsea cable to the local onshore electricity network.

About 15m below the O2’s 72m-long superstructure, two fully integrated power trains from SKF are attached on two wing-like legs. Here the twin-bladed rotors rotate, each with a diameter of 21m, the largest ever on a single generating platform to date, driven by the tidal current.

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Manufactured and launched in Dundee earlier in the year before being towed to Orkney, the O2 is Orbital’s first commercial turbine and represents the culmination of over 15 years of product development in the UK.

The turbine is expected to operate in the waters off Orkney for the next 15 years and the company said it will have the capacity to meet the annual electricity demand of around 2,000 UK homes. Additionally, the O2 is to provide power to EMEC’s onshore electrolyser to generate green hydrogen that will be used to demonstrate decarbonisation of wider energy requirements.

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