By Renewable Energy Focus staff

The tidal potential of the Mull of Galloway, Mull of Kintyre, Kyle Rhea and the Rhinns of Islay have long been recognised by industry and public bodies as areas of high tidal energy potential. Situated away from the Pentland Firth, these locations have been the target of the recent Further Scottish Leasing Round carried out by The Crown Estate.

The high resolution tidal energy maps, which will be made publicly available, aim to refine the industry wide understanding of the potential resource.

The maps are based on a model simulation run covering a typical tidal cycle. The velocities have been analysed into five data values covering:

• Maximum velocity modelled during the period
• Root mean cubed velocity averaged over the water column
• Root mean cubed velocity scaled to 25% of the water column
• The % of time that velocities greater than 4 knots (approximately 2 m/s) were modelled
• An indication of the flow type running from linear to circular