SMARTtide

• Software modelling of the UK Continental Shelf and North European Waters
• Commercially available software 100 times more detailed than existing data
• Informed the design of energy harnessing schemes to assess interactions and evaluate their impact

Launched in October 2011 this project involved Black & Veatch, in collaboration with HR Wallingford and the University of Edinburgh to develop a model of the UK Continental Shelf, 100 times more accurate than existing marine data.

This was used to assess the tidal energy potential around the UK (tidal range and tidal streams), to inform the design of energy harnessing schemes, to assess their interactions, and to evaluate their impact on European coasts. It can also be used to renew and inform flood defences, coastal erosion and aggregate extraction.

The project was launched to market under the brand of SMARTtide. This was available to the marine industry under licence from HR Wallingford.

The objective of the project was to answer the following fundamental questions:

• How will the interactions between tidal range and tidal current systems positioned around the UK waters combine to form an overall effect?
• Will the extraction of tidal energy resource in one area impact the tidal energy resource at distant sites around the UK and Europe?
• What constraints might these interactions place on the design, development and location of future systems?

The findings from this project demonstrated that there is a need to manage the roll out of tidal current and tidal range (barrage,lagoon, fence) developments to optimise the tidal resource around the UK and to ensure there is no detrimental impact to the other tidal sites and the environment.

For more information please visit HR Wallingford's website here.