European Commission funds Forward-2030 project

Orbital Marine Power (Scottish technology developer) will lead a pan-European consortium to deliver the €26.7 million Forward-2030 project.

Forward-2030 stands for (Fast-tracking Offshore Renewable energy With Advanced Research to Deploy 2030MW of tidal energy before 2030). It will run from 2021 to 2025.

Orbital will act as project coordinator as well as lead technology developer for the project. The project will accelerate the commercial deployment of floating tidal energy and will see the installation of an Orbital turbine, integrated with a hydrogen production facility and battery storage at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland.

The partners will design options for integrating large scale tidal power into future net-zero energy systems whilst developing environmental monitoring and marine spatial planning tools for large floating tidal arrays.

The next generation turbine will be deployed at EMEC’s Fall of Warness site off Orkney, where the company, this summer, installed the world’s most powerful floating turbine, O2. The new turbine will be part of the world’s most powerful floating tidal array.

• Orbital will advance the floating tidal turbine design.
• SKF will be a technical partner for designing and building an optimised fully integrated power train solution for volume manufacture.
• EMEC will host the demonstration, facilitate hydrogen production, deliver a comprehensive environmental monitoring programme, and develop a live environmental monitoring system and test programme.
• Laborelec will assess large scale integration of tidal energy to the European energy system, develop a smart energy management system and an operational forecasting tool.
• The University of Edinburgh will deliver a techno-economic analysis of tidal energy
• The MaREI Centre at University College Cork will be responsible for addressing marine spatial planning issues for wide-scale uptake of tidal energy.

Michael Baumann, BDM of Marine and Ocean Energy at SKF, explained, “Foward 2030 will be a great steppingstone in demonstrating commercial and technical competitiveness of tidal energy and is ultimately set out to provide technology readiness for serial production.”

Oliver Wragg, Orbital’s Commercial Director, remarked, “This alignment of interest sets Foward-2030 on course to have a meaningful impact as we build towards large scale commercially viable tidal energy projects.”

Michaël Marique, CEO of Engie Laborelec, said, “The integration within a single system of tidal and wind energies, as well as storage by batteries and hydrogen, makes Forward 2030 a world first.”

Matthijs Soede, Senior Policy Officer at EC, pointed out, “Its success will be a milestone for the ocean energy sector and will support the clean energy transition in the long-term.”

Commenting on the award, Remi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe, commented, “This pan-European team saw off stiff competition and will now deliver the world’s first floating tidal farm – an important win for the entire sector.

Rob Flynn, Commercial Manager of EMEC, added, “The project represents a major step forward for the commercialisation of tidal energy.”