Siemens-owned SeaGen, the world-leading tidal current system in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough, has achieved three power generation milestones in record time.
Since its installation in 2008, the tidal current turbine has fed more than six gigawatt hours of electrical power into the grid and has thus set another record for free stream tidal energy systems.
SeaGen’s leap from five to six gigawatt hours took only 68 days to complete and is therefore the narrowest time frame for the generation of a single gigawatt hour since the turbine started operation. This is even more remarkable since this period also included a 9-day outage due to a number of reasons, among them routine engineering inspections.
During a strong spring tide on 14 October 2012, SeaGen achieved no fewer than 22.52 megawatt hours (MWh) – its highest level of power generation in a single day.
“SeaGen is delivering predictable and reliable power to the grid, and with these three successes we have set crucial milestones for further commercialization of this technology and increasing its market readiness” says Achim Wörner, head of the Hydro&Storage business segment of Siemens’ Energy Sector.
In addition to Marine Current Turbines, developer of SeaGen, which Siemens acquired earlier this year, Siemens’ tidal portfolio also includes mechanical controls and drives from Siemens Industry sector and subsea interconnectors from Siemens-owned subsea business, Tronic.
Tidal turbines are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2011, revenue from the Portfolio totalled about €30 billion, making Siemens one of the world’s largest suppliers of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by nearly 320 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO2 emissions of Berlin, Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo.
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Press release, November 28, 2012; Image: Marine Current Turbines