Innovative tidal technology
FORWARD2030: Fast-tracking Offshore Renewable energy With Advanced Research to Deploy 2030 MW of tidal energy before 2030.
Orbital Marine Power is leading a pan-European consortium to deliver the FORWARD2030 project to accelerate the commercial deployment of floating tidal energy.
Multi-vector energy system
The €26.7m FORWARD2030 project has received €20.5m of grant support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme to develop a multi-vector energy system for the future.
This system will combine predictable floating tidal energy, wind generation, grid export, battery storage and green hydrogen production.
This system will combine
Predictable floating tidal energy
Wind generation
Grid export
Battery storage
Green hydrogen production
Reducing cost of tidal energy
FORWARD2030 will see Orbital advance its pioneering floating tidal turbine design, supported by technical partner, SKF, which is designing and building an optimised fully-integrated power train solution designed for volume manufacture. The project’s partners will deliver several technical innovations targeting increased rated power, enhanced turbine performance and array integration solutions to reduce the cost of Orbital’s sector-leading technology even further.
The next iteration of the Orbital tidal stream turbine will be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney and integrated with the hydrogen production and battery storage facilities that are already in situ. An additional storage solution (yet to be defined) will also be integrated into the system.
Project partners will design options for integrating large scale tidal power into future net zero energy systems, whilst developing environmental monitoring and marine spatial planning tools for large floating tidal arrays.
Next generation turbines
Orbital’s turbines will be deployed at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal test site off Eday in Orkney, where the company has already installed the O2, the world’s most powerful floating turbine. Once installed next to the O2, the new turbine will be part of the world’s most powerful floating tidal array.
EMEC will host the demonstration, facilitate hydrogen production and energy system optimisation at its tidal test site in Eday. To enhance the test programme EMEC will deliver an integrated monitoring system and develop an operational forecasting tool to optimise access for operations and maintenance.
ENGIE Laborelec will select the additional storage solution, assess large scale integration of offshore energy to the European energy system, develop a smart energy management system and an operational forecasting tool for energy systems management. As well as perform a holistic Condition Monitoring (CM) approach and introduce Current Signature Analysis in the CM. Last but not least ENGIE Laborelec will bring to the partnership their offshore expertise as well as the utility vision.
The University of Edinburgh will deliver techno-economic analysis of tidal energy, and the MaREI Centre at University College Cork will be responsible for addressing marine spatial planning issues for wide scale uptake of tidal energy.
Infrastructure to be integrated in FORWARD2030
Project aim
The aim of the project is to advance the commercialisation and rollout of tidal stream energy.
FORWARD2030 aims to deliver a breakthrough in tidal energy that will enable 2030 MW of tidal stream deployment by 2030, ensuring delivery of the Ocean Energy Europe’s 2030 vision high growth scenario. The project also aims to accelerate cost reduction of tidal stream technology, reducing costs by a further 25% by 2024, one year ahead of the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan targets for ocean energy.
Project objectives
The project has five specific objectives:
Reducing Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) by 25%
Enhancing environmental and societal acceptance
Complete industrial design for volume manufacture rollout for 10 MW and 100+ MW projects
Reducing life cycle carbon emissions by 33% from 18 gCO2 eq/kWh to 12 gCO2 eq/kWh
Enhancing commercial returns and energy system integration (with battery storage and green hydrogen production)
Project background
FORWARD2030’s predecessor, the Horizon 2020 FloTEC project (2016 to 2021), reduced the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for the Orbital O2 by 25%.
Funding
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101037125.
