Flow batteries paired with tidal energy to produce green hydrogen in Scottish islands project

November 12, 2020
LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
The European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC) onshore substation and hydrogen plant at Caldale, Eday. Image: Orkeny Sky Cam, courtesy of EMEC.

In a world first project, tidal power is set to be combined with vanadium flow batteries to produce continuous green hydrogen.

The project will be located on the island of Eday, Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, at the European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC) tidal energy test site, with a 1.8MWh flow battery from Invinity Energy Systems installed to help “smooth” tidal generation.

While tidal generation is predictable, it is variable with two high tides and two low a day. This makes it an extremely heavy cycling application, which can be very hard on conventional lithium-ion batteries, degrading them much faster than when they are used with technologies like solar PV.

This makes Invinitiy’s vanadium flow batteries much better suited, according to the company, as they are able to form heavy duty, stationary energy storage for high-utilisation and industrial applications. The Eday site will consist of eight Invinity VS3 battery modules linked together into a single system, which will be constructed at the company’s manufacturing facility in Bathgate, West Lothian.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

To read the full version of this story visit our sister site Current±.

Read Next

October 29, 2025
IPPs Greenvolt and European Energy have finalised financial deals for solar-plus-storage projects in Denmark and Latvia, while Olana and Energix have enlisted optimisers for BESS projects in Lithuania and Poland, respectively.
October 28, 2025
Singapore’s Jurong Island looks set to host a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant with integrated battery storage.
October 21, 2025
A flurry of BESS news from companies operating across Germany and the Netherlands, with utility Lichtblick launching construction on a 470MWh project in Saxony, Giga Storage inaugurating a project in Amsterdam, and cross-border BESS platform Return raising €300 million.
October 17, 2025
Utility and power firm Naturgy has started building its first BESS projects in Spain, at four solar PV plants in Almeria and the Canary Islands.
October 15, 2025
A flurry of grid-scale BESS project progress totalling more than a combined 1.5GWh in the past week, from Renalfa in Bulgaria, Engie in Romania, Nala Renewables in Finland and Metlen in Greece.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter