EURO-TIDES

European Tidal Energy Pilot Farm Focused on Industrial Design, Environmental Mitigation and Sustainability

Project Aim

Drawing from the advancements and experiences of the FORWARD-2030 and MAXBLADE EU-funded projects, EURO-TIDES is set to launch this large-scale pilot farm at the EMEC Fall of Warness tidal site in Orkney by 2027, running under full operational conditions for 15 years. Jointly funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme and the UKRI, the EURO-TIDES project started in December 2023 and will run until February 2029. EURO-TIDES aims to deliver a fully operational 9.6 MW tidal energy farm. It will be composed of four 2.4 MW Orbital Marine Power turbines to be deployed in 2027.
The project’s objectives are to:

De-risk tidal energy technology development
Reduce the Levelised Cost Of Energy (LCOE) of Orbital Marine Power’s floating tidal technology
Boost the availability of tidal stream energy production to over 95%
Increase bankability and insurability of the Orbital technology through performance verification against internationally recognised methodologies
Improve market confidence and supply chain capacity;
Increase knowledge of environmental impacts.

The project will accelerate commercialisation and lead to a 2 GW+ project pipeline.

Within the project, the Policy & Innovation Group will conduct a techno-economic assessment, building on the IEA-OES framework. We will also lead a work package on the European supply chain and circularity analysis for farm-sale tidal turbine manufacturing.

Find out more at https://www.euro-tides.eu/

Project partners

This project has received funding from the UK Research and Innovation and the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and Innovation programme under grant agreement 101136085.

Overhead view of the yellow Orbital Marine Power O2 turbine with a wake showing it is generating

O2 turbine generating.
Picture courtesy of Orbital Marine Power