Atlantis Resources has deployed and energised its first AR1500 tidal stream turbine at the MeyGen project site in the Pentland Firth off Caithness.
The turbine was successfully deployed in less than 60 minutes following earlier connection of its proprietary wet mate connection management system, which allows for rapid deployment and retrieval of the tidal stream turbine.
This follows the announcement in November 2016 that first power had been delivered to the grid from the first of the three Andritz Hydro Hammerfest tidal stream turbines.
The AR1500 is the fourth turbine that has been deployed offshore and connected to the grid onshore at a control building at Ness of Quoys in Caithness.
This building has been grid connected since June 2016 and it is at this location that the power from the project is converted and combined to form a 6MW grid compliant tidal stream power station which directly supplies energy to the local electricity distribution network in Caithness.
This is the first phase of the MeyGen project which has a total planned build out of almost 400MW. Construction for the next 6MW phase is due to commence later this year.
The AR1500 turbine system was designed under contract by Lockheed Martin, tested and commissioned at the Offshore Renewable Energy facility in Blyth and finally loaded out from the project’s operations and maintenance base at Nigg Energy Park in Scotland.
The turbine and cable installation works were carried out by James Fisher Marine Services Limited and followed the installation by GeoSea NV of the four foundation structures.
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