Tidal Resource Opportunities in the Pentland Firth
The Pentland Firth, located between mainland Scotland and the Orkney Islands, has long been identified as a critical area of tidal resource. In 2023, an opportunity arose for Crown Estate Scotland to support a campaign of geophysical surveys of the Pentland Firth that aligned with our objectives to enable future tidal energy site development.
Through the European Regional Development Fund Interreg France (Channel) England Programme, Tidal Stream Industry Energiser project (TIGER) project, Crown Estate Scotland provided a match funding contribution to enable the surveys to proceed.
The surveys were conducted to collect data within Crown Estate Scotland tidal energy property agreement areas (namely the currently leased sites Inner Sound and Duncansby Head) as well as potential future identified tidal properties (Brims Ness and Brough Ness) which are available through the current tidal ad-hoc leasing process. Further sites to the north and south of islands of Swona and Stroma in the Pentland Firth were included in the survey scope. All the sites surveyed are of particular interest for future tidal development given the resource available in the area.
Image 1: Navigation chart displaying the 7 survey areas
Image 2: Bathymetry data coverage across the 7 survey areas
The geophysical data collected includes multibeam echosounder, multibeam backscatter and single beam echosounder, all of which can support a project developer’s understanding of the site and resource characteristics. The data allows Tenants and prospective Tenants to improve the validity of resource characterisation and forecast modelling, helping to derisk the sector’s ongoing development.
In addition, the data collected has been made available to academic institutions and it is hoped will directly contribute to number of research projects (including the UP:STREAM project led by the University of Edinburgh). Directly supporting the development of tidal resource models will help the sector’s understanding of the effects tidal devices may have on the resource available downstream both within a project array and on another array further downstream, an important element of planning future development for the tidal energy sector.
Image 3: Detailed seabed bathymetry south of of Swoma