Not content to simply experiment with wave power installations using kit made by others (see ScottishPower to build world's biggest ocean power project [1]), Scotland utility ScottishPower is getting into the tidal power equipment business itself.

ScottishPower and Norwegian technology company Hammerfest Strøm today announced they have set up a new tidal power company called Hammerfest U.K.

The company is to commercialize tidal power turbine devices developed to date by Hammerfest Strøm—a company whose two largest owners include Statoil, the Norwegian oil and gas company, and Hammerfest Energi, a power utility located in northern Norway.

Under the deal, both parties will work together to optimise Hammerfest Strøm's technology. They intend to first install a full-scale prototype in Scottish waters in preparation for deployment on a wide scale in Scotland and around the globe. Manufacture of the prototype will commence in 2008, with installation during 2009.

Hammerfest already has a device in water, noted spokesperson Simon McMillan to the Cleantech Group.

"This technology has been in development since the 90s. It's already been tested in quite extreme conditions, in a Norwegian fjord for three years, and has got a very good track record. It's been proven."

The existing installation is off the the Northern Norwegian town of Hammerfest—the first town in Northern Europe to get electric streetlights, given how dark it is for a large portion of the year because of its proximity to the Arctic Circle.

The first device is relatively small, generating 300 MW of power. Future devices will generate around 1MW of output, and in future arrays of multiple devices are anticipated which could generate 50 MW to 100 MW each.

Hammerfest Strøm's devices are best described as underwater wind turbines, but with shorter blades of 8m to 10m, that turn more slowly. The units are mounted on the sea bed and aligned to the tidal flow. The design is similar to that employed by Verdant Power [2] and its East River project (see Verdant deploys tidal power array in New York [3].)

The tidal power resource is estimated at some 150 billion kilowatt-hours per annum globally, according to ScottishPower.

Black & Veatch estimates that the U.K. has access to some 13 billion kilowatt-hours of that, with over 80 percent of it in Scottish waters.

The Scottish government has taken steps to make Scotland an ocean power leader through support grants and a longer-term revenue support scheme (see Scotland jockeying to become a leader in marine power [4].)

It appears to be working; observers cite the European Marine Test Centre (EMTC) at Orkney (detailed in ScottishPower to build world's biggest ocean power project [1]) as the leading marine power research project in the world. And Edinburgh, Scotland-based Ocean Power Delivery [5] has emerged as one of the first successful commercializations of wave energy.

Scottish leaders recently stated that, "Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe's marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets."

Scotland hopes to create thousands of jobs in the sector as the technology is exported around the world, with an estimated market size of some £40B.

ScottishPower was recently acquired by Spain's Iberdrola (see ScottishPower and Iberdrola shareholders approve merger [6].)