ORE Catapult, CENSIS team up for new tidal sensors

A new type of sensor could soon be installed on the blades of subsea tidal turbines to monitor the interaction between marine life and renewable energy installations.

A collaborative project involving the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and CENSIS will aim to improve the monitoring of activity around subsea tidal installations and provide a warning when there is a risk of a collision with a tidal device, according to ORE Catapult.

The project partners will assess whether sensor technology from other industries can be employed to detect, monitor and forewarn of potential collisions with tidal energy devices, or if a new sensor technology is needed.

Vicky Coy, Project Manager at ORE Catapult, said: “Tidal energy is an emerging market with great export potential. Our primary concern is safety: the safety of both the natural environment in which we want to operate and of the equipment we want to install and use to generate energy.

“To achieve that, we must design reliable monitoring systems that confirm these systems can be comfortably integrated into the subsea environment. But, we also need to make the technology cost effective. Another aspect of this project is to simplify and reduce the costs from what is, in effect, the subsea equivalent of the planning process.”

Coy added that most tidal energy developers are small and medium-sized companies, which means that any cost reduction that comes together with improved safety will be welcomed by the industry.

The cost of subsea environmental monitoring can be substantial and inconclusive when it is difficult to confirm surface sightings with events beneath the waves.

Gavin Burrows, Project Manager at CENSIS, said: “We’re working with a number of organisations to articulate the needs for a sensor system with the appropriate sensitivities – one that can provide evidence of how marine mammals behave near tidal turbines and also determine what exactly has impacted on a particular asset, should a collision occur.

“It’s most likely that sensors, whether these are brought in from another industry or developed specifically for this purpose, will be built into the blades of subsea turbines. This could have applications in a range of other offshore devices, not just in the tidal energy market.”

Burrows added the project carries significant export potential in terms of skills and expertise to be developed as part of the project, while at the same time, it offers researches the access to new and untapped data that could be used to accelerate the industry.

CENSIS is the Scottish centre for sensors and imaging systems, which aims to bring together commercial innovation and academic research, to drive economic activity in Scotland.

ORE Catapult is the UK’s technology innovation and research centre for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy.

Image: ORE Catapult