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The World's Cleanest Energy Takes A Vast Leap Forward
€20 million EU funding will finally open up this untapped ultra-clean energy source.
If we want our environment, economy, governments and livelihoods to thrive until the end of the century, we must reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. You can argue against this all you want, but right now, that is the scientific consensus, and it will take a vast discovery to overturn this. But reaching net-zero is easier said than done. We need to rapidly adopt every possible form of low-carbon energy possible in order to meet this target. Yet, the lowest carbon form of energy is largely being ignored, and we are missing out on TW hrs of ultra-clean, predictable and reliable renewable energy. But a recent €20 million round of funding by the EU could turn the tide on this often unnoticed energy source.
The energy source in question is tidal energy. It works in the same way as wind energy, with turbines being spun by tides passing over them. However, unlike wind, tides are regular, reliable and predictable. What's more, as water is heavier than air, tides can actually carry more kinetic energy than wind, even though they are flowing slower. These two factors mean that a single tidal turbine produces far more energy than a similarly sized wind turbine. This makes it by far the lowest carbon form of energy. Solar energy produces 48g per kWh, wind energy produces 12g per kWh, and nuclear energy also produces 12g per kWh. Tidal energy only produces 1.8g per kWh!
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Not only that, but the regularity of the tides means that tidal power based energy grids will rely far less on grid-level batteries than wind or solar based ones. This not only makes it easier and cheaper to integrate tidal energy into our current grids than other renewables, but it also further reduces the overall carbon emissions of tidal energy.
Tidal seems like the perfect form of energy! So why has it been ignored?
Well, cost. These underwater turbines need to be built to survive the worst storms and resist salt-water corrosion, making them damn expensive. Moreover, there is no tidal turbine industry, so each of them needs to be custom-made, which is incredibly expensive! This is why tidal energy costs £300 per MWh of energy. That is ten times the cost of wind and solar, five times that of coal or gas, and three times more expensive than nuclear power.
Now, this price can fall. Technology costs and manufacturing costs can fall if these turbines can be developed and produced en masse. But until recently, no one wanted to sink money into tidal energy to get over this expense hump and get it competitive.
This is where Nova comes in.
Nova built the world's first tidal energy array back in 2016 in Shetland, Scotland. It was small, only using 3 of Nova's M100D turbines, but it proved the technology could work. In 2018, the array was expanded with three more turbines to a power capacity of 600 kW! During this time, Nova has refined their technology, designs and operations, and in the process, has created economic growth, green jobs and energy security for Shetland whilst also slashing the cost of tidal energy by a massive 40%!
This got many influential people, organisations and governments interested in Nova, as it proved that investment in them can actually lower tidal power's excruciating cost and make it viable.
One of these influential bodies was the EU, and despite Brexit, they have decided to pull the plug and fund a new massive Nova tidal energy array in Scotland.
The project is called Seastar, and it plans to build a 4 MW tidal power array (that is 6.6 times the power of Shetland) off the coast of Orkney. To make such a substantial tidal array, you need a larger turbine with a larger power output; otherwise, you'd need a silly number of turbines, and that isn't good economics. As such, Seastar will use 16 of Nova's yet undeployed M500D turbines, which "enables tidal energy projects to be developed at scale, delivering energy solutions to meet client needs, from local aquaculture to large-scale utility installations."
But such a project is not cheap, and Nova needs funding to get it off the ground. This is where the EU comes in. The EU's Horizon Europe programme recently agreed to fund Seastar to the tune of €20 million. Sadly, as we don't know how much Seastart will cost or even the cost of Nova's Shetland tidal array, we don't know if this €20 million solely funds Seastar. However, considering a solar farm of a similar size would only cost €4 million, this funding probably covers the vast majority of Seastar's costs.
This is all good news, but what is exciting is why the EU funded Seastar. To quote the Nova press release of the funding, it was explicitly meant to "kick-start mass manufacturing of tidal turbines in the tidal industry at Nova's headquarters in Edinburgh." In other words, this funding and Seastar can enable tidal turbine production to reach an economy of scale. This means tidal turbines will no longer be one-off custom-builds and instead a mass-produced product that any energy provider can purchase. This is a crucial tipping point that can make tidal energy cheap enough to enable rapid worldwide adoption. Some forecasts state that mass production and economies of scale will drop the price of tidal energy to as low as $120 per kWh! That is actually cheaper than many nuclear power plants (before subsidies).
So, are we on the cusp of unlocking an energy source that will revolutionise the world? No.
Estimates of how much power tidal energy can produce worldwide are between 120 and 400 GW. For some comparison, the world needs 18,000 GW. So even if we can extract the maximum amount of available tidal energy worldwide, it will only be able to provide us with 2% of the world's energy. Therefore, there is no global energy revolution here. But nonetheless, it will be revolutionary for locations with access to ample tidal energy, such as the UK. In fact, the UK predicts tidal energy could eventually provide it with 11% of its energy demand. This would dramatically help the UK and other tidal-rich nations, like Canada, France and New Zealand, reach net-zero and save the planet. So, let's hope Seastar is a roaring success and tidal energy can finally become the eco-friendly poster boy it was meant to be.
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(Originally published on PlanetEarthAndBeyond.co)
Sources: The Independent, ORE, BBC, Will Lockett, Will Lockett, Nova, Renews.biz, Nova, Tethys, Nova, Britannica, Anthropocene
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