Norwegian tides

Tidal power in the UK moved a step closer this week thanks to the technological assessment of the Hammerfest Strom tidal stream turbine system by Frazer-Nash.

The company claims that its assessment of the Norwegian tidal system for ScottishPower Renewables will smooth plans for the power giant to develop a much larger tidal system in the UK, in partnership with Hammerfest Strom.

The ScottishPower Renewables partnership aims to optimise Hammerfest Strom's technology in order to build a 1MW tidal turbine for the UK coast.

Frazer-Nash’s role in the project was to help understand the viability of scaling up the existing 300kW Norwegian tidal turbine to a system three times as powerful for deployment in UK waters.

Beginning in July, Frazer-Nash undertook technical due diligence of the Hammerfest Strom technology to ‘de-risk’ ScottishPower Renewables proposed investment in the project.

On completion,  Frazer-Nash provided a report to assess whether the investment would enable the energy supplier to build a more powerful turbine to support Scottish energy supplies in the future.