The project
Overview
Alderney’s waters have been widely recognised by academia and the renewable energy industry as being extremely suitable for the harnessing of Tidal Power, more so than other Channel Islands and almost all of the UK.
A leading Tidal Power equipment developer has estimated that Alderney’s waters are capable of harvesting 1GW of power. Other industry and academic estimates for Alderney’s waters are higher at up to 3GW.
The predictability of tides, the low environmental impact, the prospect of competitive production costs and the strong European political desire for alternative energies make the prospects for tidal energy very real and there is awareness amongst the people and politicians of Alderney of the long term potential of harvesting energy from its natural resources.
Alderney is well suited to large-scale tidal farms and has excellent export potential via sub-sea cable to the European or UK grids. Its advantages are:-
• that it is one of Europe’s optimum sites for harnessing tidal power
• it has a supportive community and legislative environment
• a single point of contact (ARE) to act as facilitator.
Measuring the resource
ARE has collected data using acoustic dopplers to measure the speed and direction of the tides every metre through the water column. This data will be processed to create a 3 dimensional model which will then be used to calculate accurately the gross power potential.
The wave resource is also being calculated within the territorial sea to the west of Ortac rock to give ARE a gross power figure from Alderney’s wave resource.
Environmental Impact
A key part of the project is understanding the environmental impact of marine power generation.
ARE has commenced Environmental Impact Assessment studies with the collection of essential baseline data through surveying wildlife populations.
Grid Connection
It is investigating the long-term viability of exporting electricity to the European Grid via France and to the UK. It is in discussion with the National Grid on an in-principle consent, subject to compliance with the Grid Code, and has secured 285MW of capacity to France with RTE.
Subsidies
ARE is also engaging with the UK government to discuss how subsidies and grants may be applicable to activities in Alderney’s waters.