SCOTLAND’S TIDE POWER MAPPED

Natural Power Publishes Tidal Resource Maps for Scottish West Coast Sites
May 2011 (Natural Power)

"Natural Power’s marine renewables team [has] developed high resolution hydrodynamic tidal energy resource models for the west coast of Scotland. The tidal potential of the Mull of Galloway, Mull of Kintyre, Kyle Rhea and the Rhinns of Islay have long been recognised by industry and public bodies as areas of high tidal energy potential…

"…Situated away from the Pentland Firth, these locations have been the target of the recent Further Scottish Leasing Round carried out by The Crown Estate. The high resolution maps, which will be made publicly available, aim to refine the industry wide understanding of the potential resource."

click for more detail about the tides of Islay

"This project has drawn on Natural Power’s global expertise in marine renewables resource assessment, utilising our in-house software routines and building on the industry standard MIKE toolsets…The maps are based on a model simulation run covering a typical tidal cycle…"

click for more detail about the tides of Kintyre

"…[V]elocities have been analysed into five data values covering…Maximum velocity…Root mean cubed velocity averaged over the water column…Root mean cubed velocity scaled to 25% of the water column…% of time that velocities [were] greater than 4 knots (approximately 2 m/s)…An indication of the flow type running from linear to circular

"Natural Power is releasing the maps of maximum velocity to complement the existing Regional Locational Guidance produced by Marine Scotland, and hopes that taken in combination they will assist both private developers and public bodies in accurately targeting resources…to move industry closer to imminent 2020 [New Energy] targets…"