Environmental impact is a key issue in gaining acceptance of new technologies. Primary concerns relating to tidal stream turbine installations are interference with the local ecosystem during installation activities, the potential of the rotating blades to injure fish and sea mammals and the loss of amenety, fishing areas and navigation space for other users of the sea area.

As Evopod is a floating tethered device it imposes less disturbance on sensitive seabed ecosystems and its single turbine rotates at such low speeds (10 – 20rpm) that they are likely to be a low threat to marine wild life.

Evopod’s novel mooring solution employs a tight envelope to reduce the size of the exclusion zone for shipping. A seabed region of one square kilometre can support 39 x E1500 units giving, in an area such as the Pentland Firth, a total rated output of 58.5MW and enough energy to support 40,000 homes. This would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 140,000 tonnes per annum, if replacing power from a coal-fired power station.