"During the early hours of this morning … our tidal stream array off the coast of the Pentland Firth became the first tidal stream array in the world to generate 50GWh of electricity," Graham Reid, the CEO of SAE Renewables, said in a statement Monday.But though there's excitement about the potential of marine energy, the footprint of tidal stream projects remains much smaller than that of other renewables.
"During the early hours of this morning … our tidal stream array off the coast of the Pentland Firth became the first tidal stream array in the world to generate 50GWh of electricity," Graham Reid, the CEO ofReid described the news as a "significant milestone in delivering tidal stream power at scale."
"Total global generation from all other tidal devices and sites is less than 50% of that amount," he added. Located in waters north of mainland Scotland, SAE Renewables' MeyGen array is made up of four 1.5 megawatt turbines and has a total capacity of 6 MW when fully operational. Currently, three turbines are in operation.
"The MeyGen site has been operational since 2017, we have overcome many challenges, with reliability being an issue in the early days, but we have learned an immense amount along the way," Reid said.