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OES-Environmental distributes metadata forms (questionnaires) to solicit information from developers involved in environmental monitoring around marine renewable energy project sites around the world. This page provides project descriptions, baseline assessment, post-installation monitoring, and links to available data and reports. Content is updated on an annual basis.

Nautricity at EMEC

Nautricity device in water at EMEC

Contents

MRE Project Site

Title: Nautricity at EMEC
Status:
Operation Ended
Project Manager:
Nautricity
Tech Developer:
Nautricity
Start Date:
End Date:
Info Last Updated:
Contact:
Lisa MacKenzie
(login for email address)
PRIMRE Link:
Projects Database
Website:
External Link

Details

Device Name:
CoRMaT 500
Technology:
Marine Energy, Tidal
Technology Subtype:
Suspended in Water Column
Support Structure:
Gravity Foundation, Mooring Lines, Gravity Anchor
Project Scale:
Single Device
Grid Connection:
Grid-Connected
Installed Capacity:
0.5 MW
Electrical Infrastructure:
Unburied Seafloor Cables
Country:
United Kingdom
Physical Site:
Constricted Channel, Shallow Channel (<40m), Narrow Channel (<2km), Wide Channel (>2km), Hard-Bottom Habitat
Water Depth:
33 m
Channel Width:
2 km

Description

Nautricity tested its second-generation tidal turbine CoRMaT, a 500 kW prototype device suitable for deployment in water depths of 8 – 500 m. This follows deployment and testing of a mooring system at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) which included Nautricity's 'Hydrobuoy' – a hydro-dynamic subsurface float whose lift varies with tidal flow velocity, and deployment of the turbine onto the mooring assembly at EMEC and observation of its performance in wave and tidal environments, both in 2013.

The CorMaT turbine employs two closely-spaced contra-rotating rotors, which drive the rotor and rotating stator sections of an electrical generator. The first rotor has three blades rotating in a clockwise direction while the second rotor, located directly behind the first, has four blades rotating in an anti-clockwise direction. Buoyancy chambers at the front and rear sections of the nacelle are tuned to achieve neutral buoyancy. The turbine is connected to a tensioned mooring at a point in the water column where the flow velocity is greatest and surface wave action minimized.

Location

The device was installed at berth 3 at EMEC’s tidal device test facility at Fall of Warness, Orkney, UK. Tidal range: 3 m. Tidal speeds up to 3.7 m/s.

Licensing Information

The CoRMaT project has an installed capacity of less than 1 MW, therefore no Section 36 Consent was required.  A Marine License was granted under the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 by Marine Scotland (the licensing authority) on 22nd February 2017 (Licence no. 06260/17/0), which can be viewed here.

Project Progress

The system underwent testing at EMEC’s Shapinsay Sound test site during 2014. In 2015, Nautricity signed up to a grid-connected tidal test berth at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal test site.

Installation of mooring infrastructure began at the beginning of March 2017, and the CoRMaT device was deployed in April 2017. In March 2018, the device was retrieved for investigation and analysis of the turbine and its supporting systems, to assess the impact of extended exposure.

All remaining marine infrastructure was removed from the Fall of Warness by the end of 2019.

Key Environmental Issues

Baseline studies for the Fall of Warness test site were performed by EMEC and can be found here.

The site’s seabed ranges from eroding sub-littoral sandbanks in the east to smooth scoured bedrock ridges and platforms with occasional boulders towards the center of the site. Fall of Warness is not a protected area; however, there are protected sites in close proximity. These include:

  • Faray and Holm of Faray SAC – protected for its grey seal populations.
  • Sanday SAC – Protected for its harbor seal populations, intertidal mudflats and sandflats, inshore sublittoal rock and subtidal sandbanks.
  • Muckle and Little Green Holm SSSI – Nationally important grey seal breeding colony (Around 3% of the national breeding population).

Papers, Reports, Research Studies

  • EMEC has produced a specific Environmental Appraisal (EA) for the Fall of Warness site which can be downloaded from here.
  • The mitigation and monitoring measures proposed within the Project Environmental Monitoring Plan (PEMP) are available here.

Environmental Monitoring: Nautricity at EMEC

ID Phase Stressor & Receptor Design and Methods Results
6711 Baseline Collision, Noise

Marine Mammals 		Potential impacts on marine mammals and basking sharks as a result of support vessel activity (e.g., noise and physical presence)
Desk based study 		Complete
Installation of the CoRMaT 500 will be completed using standard multi-cat type vessels assisted by a RIB. Installation activities will be completed in a relatively short timescale. No significant effects on any sensitive species are expected from this low level of vessel activity.
6712 Baseline Habitat Change

Fish 		Introduction of marine non-native species (via vessels, devices or other equipment)
Desk based study 		Complete
Vessels from within Scotland will be used therefore there is no potential for introduction of NNS via vessels.
6713 Baseline EMF

Fish 		Electromagnetic field (EMF) effects
Desk based study 		Complete
No significant effects
6714 Baseline Changes in Flow

Physical Environment 		Potential for changes to hydrodynamics and physical processes
Desk based study 		Complete
No important impacts of relevance to hydrodynamics or physical processes are expected from developments at Fall of Warness.
6715 Post-Installation Monitoring Collision

Marine Mammals 		Monitoring physical interactions of cetaceans, basking sharks, and harbour and grey seals with device
Device fitted with a video camera for collision and near-miss detection.
Position and speed of turbine and rotors respectively monitored via speed sensor, accelerometers and inclinometers.
Noise signature of device defined by a hydrophone survey.
 Incomplete
N/A