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Multi-scale ocean response to a large tidal stream turbine array

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  • De Dominicis, Michela
  • O'Hara Murray, Rory
  • Wolf, Judith

Abstract

The tidal stream energy sector is now at the stage of deploying the world's first pre-commercial arrays of multiple turbines. It is time to study the environmental effects of much larger full-size arrays, to scale and site them appropriately. A theoretical array of tidal stream turbines was designed for the Pentland Firth (UK), a strait between Scotland and the Orkney Islands, which has very fast tidal currents. The practical power resource of a large array spanning the Pentland Firth was estimated to be 1.64 GW on average. The ocean response to this amount of energy extraction was simulated by an unstructured grid three-dimensional FVCOM (Finite Volume Community Ocean Model) and analysed on both short-term and seasonal timescales. Tidal elevation mainly increases upstream of the tidal array, while a decrease is observed downstream, along the UK east coast. Tidal and residual flows are also affected: they can slow down due to the turbines action or speed up due to flow diversion and blockage processes, on both a local and regional scale. The strongest signal in tidal velocities is an overall reduction, which can in turn decrease the energy of tidal mixing and perturb the seasonal stratification on the NW European Shelf.

Suggested Citation

  • De Dominicis, Michela & O'Hara Murray, Rory & Wolf, Judith, 2017. "Multi-scale ocean response to a large tidal stream turbine array," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 1160-1179.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:114:y:2017:i:pb:p:1160-1179
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2017.07.058
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    6. Guerra, Maricarmen & Hay, Alex E. & Karsten, Richard & Trowse, Gregory & Cheel, Richard A., 2021. "Turbulent flow mapping in a high-flow tidal channel using mobile acoustic Doppler current profilers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 759-772.
    7. Hachmann, Christoph & Stallard, Tim & Stansby, Peter & Lin, Binliang, 2021. "Experimentally validated study of the impact of operating strategies on power efficiency of a turbine array in a bi-directional tidal channel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1408-1426.
    8. Guillou, Nicolas & Thiébot, Jérôme & Chapalain, Georges, 2019. "Turbines’ effects on water renewal within a marine tidal stream energy site," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
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    10. Niebuhr, C.M. & Schmidt, S. & van Dijk, M. & Smith, L. & Neary, V.S., 2022. "A review of commercial numerical modelling approaches for axial hydrokinetic turbine wake analysis in channel flow," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. María José Suárez-López & Rodolfo Espina-Valdés & Víctor Manuel Fernández Pacheco & Antonio Navarro Manso & Eduardo Blanco-Marigorta & Eduardo Álvarez-Álvarez, 2019. "A Review of Software Tools to Study the Energetic Potential of Tidal Currents," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, May.
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