Tidal Energy Technology News

HydroWing is gearing up for deployment of its tidal energy technology, following the recent announcement that it has been awarded a contract for a 10MW tidal stream energy project in Wales.HydroWing was the largest tidal stream project in Wales to be successful in the UK government’s latest Contracts for Difference round. The project will be located at the Morlais tidal energy site in Anglesey, which is managed by the social enterprise Menter Môn. The Morlais site is the UK’s largest consented tidal energy scheme.Richard Parkinson…

The Scottish Government announced that it has awarded engineering company Orbital Marine Power GBP3.4mln (USD 4.1million) in funding for its floating tidal turbine, which is the world’s most powerful.The Scottish engineering company is the first recipient of the Scottish Government’s GBP10 million Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund.The funding will be used to deliver the next generation O2 2MW Floating Tidal Energy Turbine, capable of powering more than 1,700 homes per year.Scotland’s Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “We have established a world lead in marine renewable technologies and this project represents a significant step forward in technological development.

Schottel, the manufacturer of propulsion and steering systems for ships and offshore applications, has made a strategic decision to merge its tidal energy businesses into Sustainable Marine Energy (SME), including UK subsidiary TidalStream Ltd and Canadian subsidiary Black Rock Tidal Power Inc (BRTP)."Following the successful collaboration between SME, Schottel Hydro and Black Rock Tidal Power to develop and demonstrate the PLAT-I floating tidal energy system, with deployments in Scotland and in Canada, Schottel has made a strategic decision to merge its tidal energy businesses into SME," said a press statement from Sustainable Marine Energy.The provider of tidal energy technology anchor solutions for marine current turbines said that  Schottel  has transferred all its tidal energy assets…

When one thinks of offshore renewable energy, one usually thinks of offshore wind. For the first time progress is being made in the U.S. to develop offshore wind resources. The first steel foundation jacket has been placed in the ocean floor to support the Deepwater Wind project off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. (See www.dwwind.com/press/#/1). But recently, progress is also being made in the development of tidal and wave energy resources closer to shore, which are known as marine hydrokinetic or MHK resources.

OceanWorks International has been awarded a contract by the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) to instrument a cable termination for a ground breaking tidal energy project in the Bay of Fundy. The project includes the design, manufacture and integration of the subsea instrumentation, shore station, and commissioning. FORCE is deploying four power cables to connect prototype instream tidal turbines to a dedicated electrical sub-station. By providing this infrastructure, FORCE is lowering the ‘barrier to entry’ for turbine manufactures to test their equipment in one of the most demanding tidal environments. The planned deployment will take place in Atlantic Canada’s Bay of Fundy, which is renowned for having the highest tidal range in the world.

Marine Current Turbines, the UK tidal energy technology company, has won EnergyOcean International’s 2011 Technology Pioneer Award for successfully demonstrating and running their commercial-scale SeaGen tidal technology. The award will be received by Martin Wright, Chief Executive of Marine Current Turbines (MCT), at the EnergyOcean International 2011 Conference in Portland, Maine, USA next month (June 15th). The 1.2MW SeaGen, located in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough, is the only tidal current turbine anywhere in the world to feed power regularly into a local electricity grid on a commercial basis. It has been operating since 2008 and has the capacity to generate electricity for the equivalent of 1500 homes.