Scottish “clean-tech company” Nova Innovation has successfully integrated a tidal energy array with battery storage from US-based Tesla to launch “the world’s first grid-connected ‘baseload’ tidal power station”.
Nova’s tidal array at Bluemull Sound in Shetland, northeast of Great Britain, which has been supplying power to the grid since last month, has been integrated with a 500 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion Tesla Powerpack to provide clean energy on demand
The project secured roughly £270,000 (US$351,000) of funding from the Scottish government’s Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme, which— supported by the European Regional Development Fund— is accelerating low-carbon infrastructure projects across the country.
Nova Innovation describe tidal power as “the perfect partner for energy storage” on account of “the predictability of the tide and the six-hour generation cycle times”.
Scottish energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “This project will utilise both renewable tidal technology and battery storage from one of the world’s pioneers of battery storage, Tesla, to overcome the challenges of current grid constraints and to enable the improved, uninterrupted, provision of low carbon energy not only in Shetland but in other small island communities across Scotland.”
