SECTORS

Blackfish is founded on engineering excellence in the tidal energy sector. Our directors and senior engineers have decades of combined experience in the development and operation of tidal stream turbines. Since our formation in 2016 we have leveraged this extensive experience of tidal stream energy conversion to push the industry forward. We have provided guidance and innovative design solutions to industry leading technology developers, constantly striving to reduce the levelized cost of tidal energy.

Our experience of full lifecycle design, assembly, operation and decommissioning has included Tidal Generation Ltd / Alstom Power tidal stream turbines with 1.2 GWh generated power across 3 turbines, Marine Current Turbines (SeaFlow and SeaGen), and the Atlantis AR1500.
We also have extensive experience in sub-system design, including blade pitch control, main power take off, clamping, electrical connectors, sealing, hydraulics, instrumentation and control.

Drawing on our extensive ocean energy insight, we have provided industry leaders with innovative solutions to their unique challenge of harnessing power from the waves. Our influence in the wave sector is far reaching: providing engineering solutions to device developers, working as expert assessors for major industry funding bodies, and developing our own innovative technologies to reduce operational costs of wave energy. Familiar with a wide variety of wave device types, from floating to fixed bottom, point absorbers to attenuators, Blackfish have supported many leading wave device developers. Our services have ranged from concept development, to sub-system design, and even full system design, assembly and commissioning.

We have also worked with Wave Energy Scotland across multiple projects as both assessors and technology developers, the latter showcasing our innovative approach to problem solving and high level of engineering capability.

Through our comprehensive portfolio of tidal and wave projects, Blackfish has amassed a wealth of skills and expertise from tidal and wave that are directly transferable to the offshore wind sector. Our experience is particularly applicable to providing innovative solutions to the construction and deployment phases as well as the operation & maintenance challenges. To date, we have developed solutions that reduce cost, increase reliability and availability for numerous clients in the fields of fatigue life assessment, subsea connections, corrosion and biofouling, support equipment design and technical due diligence.

We are currently involved in several exciting projects in the field of offshore vessel charging. As pressure on reducing carbon emissions increases, vessels are becoming increasingly electrified. Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) and Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) will need to re-charge batteries on site and our innovative and practical solutions are creating much excitement in the industry.

As well as pure design work, Blackfish also provide Design and Make services for test rigs, support equipment and prototypes. Our team of engineers has a huge range of practical skills and experience, that are often demonstrated by manufacturing, assembling and testing the test rigs ourselves.

We have a wide network of local and national suppliers that we know and trust, who can provide steelwork fabrication and machining, coating and painting, plastic parts, pumps and motors, hydraulics, and electrical power and automation. We can also provide CE marking for test rigs if required.

Some examples of successful test rig projects include:
• Aviation fuel cell test bed for tilt and roll tests build and supply
• Wave tank lifting platform build and supply
• Fatigue strain crack test rig build and supply
• Propellor torque and thrust measurement rig