SMEA second year, Neal McMillin, recently toured OpenHydro’s Greenore Technical Centre in County Louth, Ireland. OpenHydro designs, tests, and deploys tidal energy turbines to provide silent, invisible, and predictable renewable energy from the ocean. The facilities tour complimented McMillin’s research on tidal energy pilot projects.

Neal’s trip continued in Orkney, Scotland when he had the opportunity to meet with David Cowan of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). EMEC provides world leading testing facilities for early-generation wave energy devices and tidal power turbines. EMEC has provided a key learning opportunity for the tidal energy developers within Neal’s case studies.

While in Scotland Neal got to examine the Inner Sound in Caithness located in the Pentland Firth, one of the world’s prime locations for tidal energy. The Inner Sound is set to host the world’s first commercial tidal energy array, when four turbines totaling 6 MW are deployed in 2016. This leading project is led by MeyGen Ltd, a subsidiary of Atlantis Resources.