Project Manager
PRIMRE/Databases/Projects Database/Projects/Orbital Marine Power Westray Tidal Array
From Open Energy Information
< PRIMRE | Databases | Projects Database | Projects
Orbital Marine Power Westray Tidal Array
The Westray Tidal Array project aims to install around 70 of Orbital Marine Power's O2 tidal turbine devices at Westray Firth, Orkney, with a total generating capacity of 170 MW. To ensure station-keeping, each device will be attached via four mooring lines connected to either rock drilled or gravity anchors and there will be four anchors per device, or anchor sharing if deemed technically achievable following detailed design. The site is expected to need up to five 33 kV electrical export cables. These would pass through the EMEC Fall of Warness Eday Tidal Test Site with the cable landfall and grid connection at EMEC’s onshore connection point. This project was previously under development by DP Energy and was transferred to Orbital Marine Power in March 2023. Details about the original project can be found here.
Additional Information
Project Status
Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?
Active
Project Life Cycle
Project Progress through life cycle:
- Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment
- Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active
- Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water
- Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations
- Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water
Planned
Max Rated Power Capacity
The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.
170 MW
Project Start Year
2023
Energy Resource
- Tidal
Project Scale
Full-scale
Number of Devices
70
Waterbody
Westray Firth, Orkney Islands
Site Characteristics
Geographic characterization for the project location:
- Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land
- Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary
- Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water
- Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land
- River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water
Coastal
Country
United Kingdom
Environmental Details
Last Modified
15 May 2025
This Project has the following MRE Devices
Filters:
Citation Formats
“Orbital Marine Power Westray Tidal Array.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Orbital_Marine_Power_Westray_Tidal_Array. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.
Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Orbital Marine Power Westray Tidal Array." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Orbital_Marine_Power_Westray_Tidal_Array.
