ORPC Ireland kicks off real-sea testing of tidal turbine in Northern Ireland

ORPC Ireland has deployed and started real-sea testing of a next-generation marine hydrokinetic turbine at Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough tidal test site.

This marks ORPC Ireland’s first European deployment after 17 previous setups in North America. The testing is part of the X-Flow project, led by Queen’s University Belfast in collaboration with Applied Renewables Research and Shell Technology – Marine Renewable Program. 

Supported by the Green Innovation Challenge Fund through the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE), the project aims to gather data on turbine performance in real tidal conditions building on laboratory tests conducted at Italy’s Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche as part of the European Commission-funded CRIMSON project.

“The Queen’s Marine Laboratory (QML) Tidal Test Site in Strangford Lough is a unique facility providing developers the opportunity to deploy and monitor their technology in real tidal flows,” said Carwyn Frost, Senior Lecturer at QUB. 

The X-Flow project is set to offer insights into how turbulent flow affects the control and blade loading of crossflow turbines, with ORPC’s fully instrumented turbine providing crucial data on performance under these conditions.

“This work will facilitate condition monitoring for predictive maintenance approaches and validation data for numerical simulations. The team at QML looks forward to delivering successful on-water testing in collaboration with our industry partners,” added Frost.

As part of X-Flow, ORPC’s testing program will monitor turbine performance across diverse operational conditions, aiming to refine and validate numerical models based on data from Strangford Lough.

“ORPC are bringing clean, predictable, emission-free tidal and river energy to markets around the globe, and this deployment and research is helping to maximise design efficiency and performance of our power systems,” Patrick Cronin, Director of European Operations at ORPC Ireland, noted.

“We have been delighted to collaborate with Queen’s University Belfast, the X-Flow project team, and our local supply chain partners to successfully achieve this milestone of ORPC’s first deployment in real-sea conditions in Europe. We look forward to the next stage of the project as we begin our test and operation campaign at the QML Tidal Test Site.”

Additional projects are also underway to support ORPC’s innovations in marine energy – in April, ORPC Ireland, along with partners CTL Composites Testing Laboratory and the University of Galway, secured nearly €500,000 in funding from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) for the DeepCData project, which focuses on generating test data for composite materials in tidal turbine blades.

Earlier this year, ORPC Ireland completed testing on a next-generation marine hydrokinetic turbine foil for renewable energy at the University of Galway, demonstrating strong potential for the next generation of marine turbines.