According to some scientists, harnessing the tidal power in Pentland Firth could provide as much energy as a nuclear power station. Once described as the “greatest untapped source of energy Scotland has ever had”, the Pentland Firth has always been considered too deep and too dangerous to exploit. However, with research showing that tapping into it could see electricity production that could fuel every home and business in Scotland several times over, the race is on to harness this power.

Aside from electricity production for properties, it is envisaged that any spare electricity produced could be used to convert rubbish into biofuel, helping solve the problem of our oil dependency and over-reliance on landfill sites.

In August this year, the world’s largest tidal-current generator is being installed in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Next year, ScottishPower are planning to test an underwater turbine in the Pentland Firth. ScottishPower are hoping that this system will generate up to 1 GW of electricity - this is the figure that all of Scotland’s wind farms produce together and also is the same amount of power produced by Hunterston B, a nuclear power station.

Professor Salter is a researcher who has written an energy review on the potential of Pentland Firth. He believes that the estimate is too conservative and have predicted that the underwater turbine could in fact produce up to 20GW of power. That equates to nearly twice the electricity that Scotland uses at it’s peak demand. Professor Salter has developed a new cylindrical turbine which he believes will be able to go deeper than any other turbine currently in production and this will enable it to get down to where Pentland Firth’s most powerful currents are found.

The energy would be generated in four chunks, in line with the four tidal pulses each day. This means that energy would be generated during the night when electricity demand is typically low. However, fuel cells of large industrial batteries could be used to store this electricity either for use when demand surges again, or to be used in the process of turning rubbish into gas or liquid fuel.

Should the Pentland Firth scheme prove successful, it has the power to change the face of Scotland’s energy production forever.

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