World-first demonstration successfully completed at EMEC’s facility on the island of Eday, Orkney, Scotland
Wednesday 3 December 2025
Invinity Energy Systems was delighted to note that its customer, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), successfully completed a world-first demonstration combining tidal power, vanadium flow battery (VFB) storage and hydrogen production at its facility in Orkney, Scotland. For further information, please see EMEC’s full announcement here.
Above: Invinity’s 1.8 MWh VFB on site at EMEC’s facility in Orkney
Led by EMEC, Invinity’s 1.8 MWh VFB was successfully integrated alongside Orbital Marine Power’s O2 tidal turbine and a 670 kW ITM Power electrolyser at EMEC’s onshore site on the island of Eday.
“HIE and Scottish Government are pleased to have supported the deployment of innovative technologies at EMEC which have combined in this ground-breaking demonstration.
“The project illustrates how the highly predictable flows of power from tidal streams can be successfully harnessed in a variety of forms to meet the energy needs of business and communities throughout Scotland and beyond.”
– Graeme Harrison, Head of Marine Energy, Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Maintaining a stable power supply to an electrolyser is key to the production of green hydrogen, which is why EMEC chose Invinity’s VFBs to support this project. Invinity’s non-degrading vanadium flow battery technology is ideally suited to smoothing out intermittent renewable generation, particularly from highly variable but predictable sources such as tidal generation, as it can support multiple cycles per day without loss of capacity to maximise the operational efficiency of hydrogen electrolysers. Furthermore, as with all energy projects, the highest level of safety is non-negotiable – this is yet another reason why Invinity’s non-flammable battery technology, which achieves the highest levels of operational safety, was selected.
“This world-first demonstration represents the culmination of years of effort to integrate tidal energy, battery storage and hydrogen production. Bringing together three innovative technologies was a complex challenge, but reaching this milestone has provided invaluable insights.
“Running all planned scenarios, responding swiftly to an electrolyser trip, and identifying opportunities for greater automation have given us a clear roadmap for optimising future systems. The trial also highlights an alternative pathway for tidal energy in scenarios where grid export capacity is limited, a likely feature in the future as we transition to a fully renewable energy system.
“Building on our practical experience with hydrogen, we’re now exploring other offtake routes such as synthetic fuel production using renewable hydrogen as a feedstock, a practical solution to decarbonise hard-to-electrify sectors like aviation and maritime. This is especially relevant to Orkney, and we’re excited to keep driving clean energy innovation.”
– Leonore Van Velzen, Operations and Maintenance Manager, European Marine Energy Centre
“Tidal energy offers a predictable source of renewable power, and this demonstration shows how we can unlock its full potential through innovative integration. By maximising generation through battery storage, we minimise curtailment and enable industrial offtake that can achieve higher decarbonisation, creating new markets for tidal energy and providing valuable services like grid balancing.
“This approach will be key as the tidal industry scales globally while strengthening energy resilience for coastal communities.”
– Andrew Scott, Chief Executive Officer, Orbital Marine Power
“This unique project showcases the strengths of our vanadium flow battery technology as a high-cycling, non-degrading and fundamentally safe form of long-duration energy storage. With this exciting demonstration, EMEC have proven the suitability of vanadium flow batteries for two emerging applications in the form of green hydrogen production and tidal power firming.
We are delighted to have supported EMEC in the delivery of this world first project, integrating our Scottish-made battery technology into cutting edge applications which could form a key part of our future grid networks not only in the UK but globally.”
– Jonathan Marren, Chief Executive Officer, Invinity Energy Systems
For more detail, please see our case study of this innovative, world-first project here.