The 500kW turbine prototype was designed and built by Tidal Generation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce.
The prototype unit is currently deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC’s) test site off Scotland.
The turbine was installed as part of the Deep-Gen III project, co-funded by the UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board.
The three-bladed turbine is attached by a tripod to the seabed and can operate, fully submerged at water depth of 40m.
The turbine unit is also semi-buoyant and can be towed to and from the point of operation, Rolls-Royce said.
Rolls-Royce is now building a 1MW tidal turbine demonstration unit as part of the Energy Technologies Institute funded Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal consortium project, and this unit will be deployed in mid-2012 at EMEC in Orkney.
