Underwater turbine spinning for 6 years off Scotland's coast is a breakthrough for tidal energy
Keeping a large or grid-scale turbine in place in the harsh sea environment that long is a record that helps pave the way for bigger tidal energy farms and makes it far more appealing to investors, according to the trade association Ocean Energy Europe. Tidal energy projects would be prohibitively expensive if the turbines had to be taken out of the water for maintenance every couple of years. Tidal energy technologies are still in the early days of their commercial development, but their potential for generating clean energy is big. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, marine energy – a term researchers use to refer to power generated from tides, currents, waves, or temperature changes – is the world's largest untapped renewable energy resource. The MeyGen tidal energy project off the coast of Scotland has four turbines producing 1.5 megawatts each, enough electricity collectively to power up to 7,000 homes annually.
On Thursday, the Swedish company SKF announced that its bearings and seals on one of the turbines had passed the 6 1/2-year mark without needing unplanned or disruptive maintenance. It has been working closely with the industry for a decade on design and testing. 'Achieving six years in the water with constant operations is a very significant milestone that bodes well for the future of tidal energy,' said Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe. Scotland and the UK are global leaders in tidal energy. The MeyGen site, operated by SAE Renewables, has been sending electricity to the grid for about eight years. 'There are very few tidal energy projects generating electricity continuously. Most have been tests and demonstrations,' said Andrea Copping, an expert in marine renewable energy development.
Copping said there are still large hurdles to overcome before tidal energy can be adopted more widely, such as dealing with regulatory issues, potential environmental effects, and conflicts with other ocean users. Still, the Scotland project seems to have addressed the question of whether the turbines can last in seawater, added Copping, a distinguished faculty fellow in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington. 'I think they have checked the boxes,' she said. 'Because skeptics – and that includes investors, of course, and governments – said, 'How on Earth are you going to operate these things, especially for any length of time in this very tough environment?' And that's what I think they proved.' 'It's very hard to take what is essentially a wind turbine normally found on land and put it under water,' said Fraser Johnson, operations and maintenance manager at MeyGen. The record-setting turbine should keep going for at least another year before it needs to come out of the water for maintenance, he added.
The four turbines are in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth, a narrow channel between the Scottish mainland and Stroma Island known for strong tidal currents. Tidal energy systems need strong currents to make electricity efficiently. MeyGen plans to add 20 turbines in 2030 to produce more electricity after needed upgrades to the electricity grid are finished. The site could eventually hold as many as 130 turbines that are more powerful than those at the site today.
The MeyGen site is in the open water, while another type of tidal project involves creating a dam-like structure called a barrage across tidal waters. With four turbines, MeyGen is considered the largest tidal energy project of its kind worldwide, said Johnson. 'It's a title we wish we didn't have. We want more, we want others,' he said. 'Unfortunately, others are having difficulty achieving what MeyGen has achieved. But working with SKF moving forward, we'll push the industry forward.'
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Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Underwater turbine spinning for 6 years off Scotland's coast is a breakthrough for tidal energy
Submerged in about 40 meters (44 yards) of water off Scotland's coast, a turbine has been spinning for more than six years to harness the power of ocean tides for electricity – a durability mark that demonstrates the technology's commercial viability. Keeping a large or grid-scale turbine in place in the harsh sea environment that long is a record that helps pave the way for bigger tidal energy farms and makes it far more appealing to investors, according to the trade association Ocean Energy Europe. Tidal energy projects would be prohibitively expensive if the turbines had to be taken out of the water for maintenance every couple of years. Tidal energy technologies are still in the early days of their commercial development, but their potential for generating clean energy is big. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, marine energy – a term researchers use to refer to power generated from tides, currents, waves, or temperature changes – is the world's largest untapped renewable energy resource. The MeyGen tidal energy project off the coast of Scotland has four turbines producing 1.5 megawatts each, enough electricity collectively to power up to 7,000 homes annually. On Thursday, the Swedish company SKF announced that its bearings and seals on one of the turbines had passed the 6 1/2-year mark without needing unplanned or disruptive maintenance. It has been working closely with the industry for a decade on design and testing. 'Achieving six years in the water with constant operations is a very significant milestone that bodes well for the future of tidal energy,' said Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe. Scotland and the UK are global leaders in tidal energy. The MeyGen site, operated by SAE Renewables, has been sending electricity to the grid for about eight years. 'There are very few tidal energy projects generating electricity continuously. Most have been tests and demonstrations,' said Andrea Copping, an expert in marine renewable energy development. Copping said there are still large hurdles to overcome before tidal energy can be adopted more widely, such as dealing with regulatory issues, potential environmental effects, and conflicts with other ocean users. Still, the Scotland project seems to have addressed the question of whether the turbines can last in seawater, added Copping, a distinguished faculty fellow in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington. 'I think they have checked the boxes,' she said. 'Because skeptics – and that includes investors, of course, and governments – said, 'How on Earth are you going to operate these things, especially for any length of time in this very tough environment?' And that's what I think they proved.' 'It's very hard to take what is essentially a wind turbine normally found on land and put it under water,' said Fraser Johnson, operations and maintenance manager at MeyGen. The record-setting turbine should keep going for at least another year before it needs to come out of the water for maintenance, he added. The four turbines are in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth, a narrow channel between the Scottish mainland and Stroma Island known for strong tidal currents. Tidal energy systems need strong currents to make electricity efficiently. MeyGen plans to add 20 turbines in 2030 to produce more electricity after needed upgrades to the electricity grid are finished. The site could eventually hold as many as 130 turbines that are more powerful than those at the site today. The MeyGen site is in the open water, while another type of tidal project involves creating a dam-like structure called a barrage across tidal waters. With four turbines, MeyGen is considered the largest tidal energy project of its kind worldwide, said Johnson. 'It's a title we wish we didn't have. We want more, we want others,' he said. 'Unfortunately, others are having difficulty achieving what MeyGen has achieved. But working with SKF moving forward, we'll push the industry forward.'
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
With sanctions lifted, Syria looks to solar power as more than a patchwork fix to its energy crisis
DAMASCUS: Abdulrazak Al-Jenan swept the dust off his solar panel on his apartment roof overlooking Damascus. Syria's largest city was mostly pitch-black, the few speckles of light coming from the other households able to afford solar panels, batteries, or private generators. Al-Jenan went thousands of dollars in debt to buy his solar panel in 2019. It was an expensive coping mechanism at the time, but without it, he couldn't charge his phone and run the refrigerator. Syria has not had more than four hours of state electricity per day for years, as a result of the nearly 14-year civil war that ended with the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in December. Syria's new leaders are hoping renewable energy will now become more than a patchwork solution. Investment is beginning to return to the country with the lifting of US sanctions, and major energy projects are planned, including an industrial-scale solar farm that would secure about a tenth of the country's energy needs. 'The solution to the problem isn't putting solar panels on roofs,' Syria's interim Energy Minister Mohammad Al-Bashir told The Associated Press. 'It's securing enough power for the families through our networks in Syria. This is what we're trying to do.' Restoring the existing energy infrastructure Some of the efforts focus on simply repairing infrastructure destroyed in the war. The World Bank recently announced a $146 million grant to help Syria repair damaged transmission lines and transformer substations. Al-Bashir said Syria's infrastructure that has been repaired can provide 5,000 megawatts, about half the country's needs, but fuel and gas shortages have hampered generation. With the sanctions lifted, that supply could come in soon. More significantly, Syria recently signed a $7 billion energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish, and American companies. The program over the next three and a half years would develop four combined-cycle gas turbines with a total generating capacity estimated at approximately 4,000 megawatts and a 1,000-megawatt solar farm. This would 'broadly secure the needs' of Syrians, said Al-Bashir. While Syria is initially focusing on fixing its existing fossil fuel infrastructure to improve quality of life, help make businesses functional again, and entice investors, the UN Development Program said in May that a renewable energy plan will be developed in the next year for the country. The plan will look at Syria's projected energy demand and determine how much of it can come from renewable sources. 'Given the critical role of energy in Syria's recovery, we have to rapidly address energy poverty and progressively accelerate the access to renewable energy,' Sudipto Mukerjee, UNDP's resident representative in Syria, said in a statement announcing the plan. Sanctions crippled the power grid While the war caused significant damage to Syria's infrastructure, crippling Washington-led sanctions imposed during the Assad dynasty's decades of draconian rule made it impossible for Syria to secure fuel and spare parts to generate power. 'Many companies over the past period would tell us the sanctions impact matters like imports, implementing projects, transferring funds and so on,' Al-Bashir said. During a visit to Turkiye in May, the minister said Syria could only secure about 1700 megawatts, a little less than 20 percent, of its energy needs. A series of executive orders by US President Donald Trump lifted many sanctions on Syria, aiming to end the country's isolation from the global banking system so that it can become viable again and rebuild itself. The United Nations estimates the civil war caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and economic losses across the country. Some 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty. Buying solar panels, private generators or other means of producing their own energy has been out of reach for most of the population. 'Any kind of economic recovery needs a functional energy sector,' said Joseph Daher, Syrian-Swiss economist and researcher, who said that stop-gap measures like solar panels and private generators were luxuries only available to a few who could afford it. 'There is also a need to diminish the cost of electricity in Syria, which is one of the most expensive in the region.' Prices for electricity in recent years surged as the country under its former rulers struggled with currency inflation and rolling back on subsidies. The new officials who inherited the situation say that lifting sanctions will help them rectify the country's financial and economic woes, and provide sufficient and affordable electricity as soon as they can. 'The executive order lifts most of the obstacles for political and economic investment with Syria,' said Qutaiba Idlibi, who leads the Americas section of the Foreign Ministry. Syria has been under Washington-led sanctions for decades, but designations intensified during the war that started in 2011. Even with some waivers for humanitarian programs, it was difficult to bring in resources and materials to fix Syria's critical infrastructure — especially electricity — further compounding the woes of the vast majority of Syrians, who live in poverty. The focus is economic recovery The removal of sanctions signals to US businesses that Trump is serious in his support for Syria's recovery, Idlibi said. 'Right now, we have a partnership with the United States as any normal country would do,' he said. Meanwhile, Al-Jenan is able to turn on both his fans on a hot summer day while he watches the afternoon news on TV, as the temperature rises to 35 degrees Celsius (95 F). He doesn't want to let go of his solar panel but hopes the lifting of sanctions will eventually bring sustainable state electricity across the country. 'We can at least know what's going on in the country and watch on TV,' he said. 'We really were cut off from the entire world.'
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
Turning ocean preservation into an economic windfall
In 1960, my father, Jacques Piccard, reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, almost 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) below sea level. The mission was not to make headlines, but to disprove a dangerous misconception. Some experts had claimed that no life could survive in the crushing darkness of the ocean's depths, and that assumption had led to proposals to use the deep sea as a dumping ground for nuclear waste. But my father and his team encountered living fish — a discovery that prevented a potentially catastrophic mistake. My father's mission underscores what exploration has always meant to my family. It is not about conquest and domination, but rather curiosity and understanding. Studying nature expands not only the frontiers of our knowledge, but also the scope of our responsibility as planetary stewards. Today, the ocean is under greater threat than ever. Despite decades of warnings, mankind continues to treat the ocean as an inexhaustible resource and a bottomless dumping ground. We are suffocating it with plastic, heating it with emissions, poisoning it with chemicals, and depleting it by overfishing. But the biggest danger is subtler: As was true in 1960, there is a glaring gap between what we know and what we are doing. While we speak of binding treaties and ambitious targets, our actions remain fragmented and insufficient. Even as the ocean's degradation accelerates, governments often take refuge behind the complexity of global consensus-building, using it as an excuse for inaction. As a result, fishing vessels engaged in illegal practices, such as destructive bottom trawling in marine protected areas, are still permitted to sell their catch freely in ports and markets. Although regulations exist, enforcement is weak, sporadic, or simply absent. But we cannot afford to wait for the perfect implementation of perfect treaties. Nor should we use others' failure to address the problem as an excuse for our own inaction. After all, we already know the solutions, and we have the tools to pursue them. What is missing is the will. The spirit of exploration must guide us toward regeneration, not exploitation. Bertrand Piccard At the Solar Impulse Foundation, we have identified more than 1,800 clean and profitable strategies and tools that reconcile economic growth with environmental preservation. Many focus on strengthening regenerative and sustainable practices in the blue economy — from technologies that track illegal fishing and monitor vessel movements from space, to innovations in low-carbon shipping, plastic waste prevention, and regenerative aquaculture. Our recent Ocean Opportunity Guide, mapping ocean-focused innovation, shows just how broad and mature these solutions are. From bio-enhancing concrete that supports marine life to seaweed-based alternatives to single-use plastic and traceability platforms that eliminate greenwashing in seafood value chains, these are not theoretical models; they are real tools already being deployed around the world. Behind them stands a growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers. Equally, new financial mechanisms are emerging to bridge the gap between innovation and scale. Blended finance structures, results-based payments, and de-risking vehicles are beginning to unlock capital for nature-based solutions and sustainable aquaculture, particularly in vulnerable coastal economies. These developments show that diverse stakeholders, when aligned, can build an innovation ecosystem capable of solving one of the world's most complex challenges. The solutions we highlight are tested, scalable, and economically sound. They do more than protect ecosystems; they also create jobs, stimulate new markets, and reduce long-term operational risk. Clean innovation in the ocean economy is already generating competitive advantages for forward-looking companies and countries. Financial instruments that de-risk nature-based investments are helping to stabilize coastal economies and expand access to new forms of capital. And circular-economy solutions like seaweed-based packaging and marine-life-friendly infrastructure are not only reducing environmental harm, but also lowering material costs and strengthening supply-chain transparency. In short, ocean preservation is becoming an engine of industrial renewal and geopolitical resilience. As an economic development strategy, it is both future-proof and inclusive, and it appeals to investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers alike. But to unlock this potential, we must change the narrative. Sustainability is not about sacrifice; it is about modernization, innovation, and efficiency. Far from an environmental constraint, ocean preservation is a catalyst for a more dynamic, resilient global economy. As such, it should be recognized as the new frontier of exploration. Our task is to discover not uncharted depths, but better systems. Like the entrepreneurs featured in the Ocean Opportunity Guide, we should all be questioning what we have built and considering how it could be improved. The spirit of exploration must guide us toward regeneration, not exploitation. It must inspire us to stop waiting for others, and to start demonstrating the leadership that this moment demands.
