World’s ‘most powerful’ tide turbine to power up an onshore electrolyzer and generate green hydrogen

The future. The present future. Protecting forests and the environment in one hand, and developing technologies and patents on the other. Here is a case when two innovative technologies synergize: clear energy from the tides to generate green hydrogen.

As a significant milestone for the United Kingdom's marine energy sector, "O2" is the first commercial tidal turbine by Orbital Power Company (Orbital). It was recently installed in an archipelago situated in Scotland, a strategic location off Orkney coast, from where it will operate for the next coming 15 years.

Tagged as the “most powerful” tidal turbine, the 74m long and 680 metric-ton turbine produces enough energy to power about 2000 homes.

The turbine will subsequently power up the onshore electrolyzer of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) to generate green hydrogen. This ongoing integration of technologies, coordinated by Orbital, is called project "FORWARD-2030" and you can read more about it at EMEC's website. EMEC was the company that last November 2022 annouced supplying hydrogen for Rolls-Royce to conduct ground tests of their new futuristic jet engines. By the way, EMEC's website has lots of interesting information.

To develope "O2", Orbital received financial support from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, specifically via the "Floating Tidal Energy Commercialisation project (FloTEC)".

Click on the image below to know more about this tidal turbine at the FloTEC website. Please note that you will be directed to the "Results in Brief" folder, but you could choose also "Fact Sheet", "Reporting", "Results" and "News & Midia"