SeaGen generates more power than expected

The SeaGen water turbine installed last year at the Strangford Lough is producing more energy than anticipated. According to the SeaGen turbine developer, Marine Current Turbines (MCT), the device is now producing enough electricity to meet the power needs of 1,500 UK homes.

MCT has currently been granted authorization to operate the SeaGen without the need for any onboard environmental scientist to guard marine mammals. The company emphasized that the water turbine can now be run by remote control as porpoises and seals are not at any major risk.

At the Lisbon International Ocean Power Conference, MCT co-founder Peter Fraenkel, who is also the technical director of the company, said that SeaGen is functioning consistently and it is delivering extra power than previously expected in an extremely hostile environment. He claimed that the tidal stream device is in line of generating an annual 7GWh of renewable energy against original expectation of 5GWh.

Fraenkel informed that the device is driven by a surging wall of 27m deep water at speeds equal to 10mph. He further added that SeaGen is receiving revenue from the sale of the power that it generates.

Recently, SeaGen was awarded with a Renewable Obligation Certificate for generation of clean renewable energy. The marine turbine is officially certified by Ofgem as a ‘UK power station’, the first tidal power system to obtain such title.

The SeaGen has now delivered over 350MWh of electricity into Northern Ireland’s power grid, with the twin 16m diameter generators producing around 5MWh of power during six hours of each ebb and flood tide.