Photo: MeyGen. Retrieved from bbc.com
In a vast, rust-stained hangar on a windswept quayside an hour’s drive from Inverness, sits a piece of state of the art technology. It is covered in barnacles, and smells overpoweringly of fish.
The machine is a tidal turbine, one of four that normally stand on the seabed beneath the frigid waters of the Pentland Firth, the strait that lies between the far north of mainland Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
Brought in for servicing, its 150-tonne bulk is supported in a giant metal cradle, and its complex wiring is exposed. Its 8m long blades, which look similar to the ones you would find on a wind turbine, have been laid out carefully on the floor.
When running it is capable of producing a peak output of 1.5 megawatts (MW), about half the output of the average offshore wind turbine.
The MeyGen project, as it is known, has been operating in the Pentland Firth since 2018. The four turbines are based in the strait’s Inner Sound, just off the island of Stroma.