Last year tidal turbine maker Atlantis Resources Corporation and Internet Villages International partnered to build the first tidal-powered data center (Blue Data Center). The data center must be powered by the Pentland Firth waters. But there were a number of problems.
Atlantis Resources Corporation recently reported that new rotor blades almost ready for its giant, AK1000, tidal turbine, which is already deployed on the seabed at European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) test site off Eday, one of the Orkney islands.
This follows the failure of the experimental composite blades originally fitted to the AK1000™ device, due to a manufacturing fault. The company successfully installed the twin-rotor turbine last year at the Fall of Warness tidal test site.
After a period of dry static testing, the new blades are due to be installed in mid May, if weather conditions are suitable. The 22.5 metre tall, 1,300-tonne turbine is deployed in 35 metres of water. Once the 18-meter diameter rotors are operational again, it will have a power output of 1 megawatt (MW) at a water velocity of 2.65m/s.