Orbital Marine Power Ltd (Orbital), the world’s leading developer of floating tidal stream turbines, has selected FAUN Trackway to manufacture the anchors for its new O2 tidal stream turbine at FAUN Trackway’s facilities in Llangefni, Isle of Anglesey, North Wales.
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As pace gathers around the manufacture of the O2 tidal turbine, FAUN Trackway has been engaged to manufacture four steel anchor structures, along with bespoke mooring connectors, that will be installed in the Fall of Warness, Orkney Islands where Orbital has an existing berth and grid connection with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).
The O2 tidal turbine is an optimised version of Orbital’s hugely successful SR2000 turbine. With an ability to generate in excess of 2MW the O2, like the SR2000 before it, will become the world’s most powerful tidal turbine when it enters operation later in 2020 at EMEC.
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Commenting on the contract award Orbital’s CEO, Andrew Scott, said: “This is a transformational project for Orbital, and for the tidal sector, and these anchors will have the important job of holding the O2 on station so it can generate gigawatt hours of clean, predictable power from the strong tides we have around Orkney – so we are delighted to be engaging the experience and precision of FAUN Trackway for this critical supply.”
Gareth Williams, Engineering Manager for FAUN Trackway, said: “We’re excited to get involved and provide value to this great project. The manufacture of the anchor structures and bespoke mooring connections will fully utilise our design for manufacture (DFM), engineering and production methodologies to provide a cost effective solution for Orbital. Components will be manufactured, tested, inspected and coated to stringent DNV standards to ensure the high integrity components stand the test of time”.
David Jones, Director for Marine Energy Wales, said: “This is another example of how the marine energy sector is providing supply chain companies across the UK with diversification opportunities. It is really positive to see FAUN moving into this innovative low carbon sector successfully and for Welsh companies to be supporting world leading UK tidal developers.”
Whilst these anchors are destined for Scottish waters, Orbital is also a berth holder at the Morlais tidal energy project venture off Anglesey in North Wales which is seeking to provide a route to larger arrays of tidal turbines. Speaking of the future opportunity, Andrew Scott said: “This first O2 build is demonstrating the industrial opportunities that can be captured and grown by a UK supply chain if commercial projects like Morlais come to fruition, and we look forward to working with UK Government to help realise that.”
