Effects of bathymetric constraints in tidal stream array layout design

Tidal stream resource assessment studies often overlook industrial constraints of economic, regulatory and environmental nature, due to data or computational limitations. While array layout design studies may consider these factors, they frequently neglect site-specific device installation constraints. Incorporating all of these considerations for the MeyGen project (Inner Sound, Pentland Firth, Scotland), we show that site-specific bathymetric restrictions hinder structured arrays, reducing opportunity to exploit blockage phenomena. We find that installation constraints interact with economic and environmental criteria and at MeyGen, omitting installation constraints could overestimate yield by over 10%. Objective functions for array design optimization must therefore be site- and turbine-specific. Array size can be maximized by deploying multiple device types at bathymetrically constrained sites and will be dictated by defining robust economic feasibility metrics. Iterative model refinement and calibration will improve yield estimates and reduce uncertainty. Further site-specific studies resolving these constraints are crucial for accurate nationwide resource estimation.