Voith Hydro News

Harnessing the power of the tides is not for the squeamish, with the roster of trials and failures long and distinguished. Jason Hayman and his Sustainable Marine Energy crew are putting their tech to the test in one of the harshest spots on the planet, the Bay of Fundy, as his discussed with Marine Technology TV.Jason, to start, how did you come to a career in the offshore renewable energy field?I suppose my interest got piqued back in about 2003. I went to a lecture at the University of Newcastle and they had a wave energy crowd there and a tidal energy developer.

Antti Kaunonen has been appointed as Senior Vice President, Automation and Projects, Kalmar, part of Cargotec. Antti Kaunonen brings with him over 25 years of experience from industrial businesses and deep knowledge in automation. He has delivered proven success in building automation and project business capabilities in global companies. Before joining Kalmar, Antti worked at Voith in Germany close to eight years in different management positions heading Voith Paper Automation, Voith Paper EMEA Region and, most recently, Voith Hydro Automation. Before Voith, Antti worked for Metso Automation over 20 years in various key roles. During this time he lived five years in the USA and over one year in China.

Voith has been awarded a new contract to supply the complete electromechanical equipment for a pumped storage power plant in Thailand. The order for the extension of the Lam Ta Khong hydropower plant includes the supply of two motor-generators, two 255 MW vertical pump turbines, the automation systems as well as the electrical and mechanical balance-of-plant systems. The contract has been awarded by the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and has a total value of around €50 million. Lam Ta Khong is the first pumped storage plant equipped by Voith in Southeast Asia and another milestone for the company on this promising hydropower market.

GDF SUEZ sign collaboration agreement with 4 companies to develop the Raz Blanchard, Normandy pilot installation. Marine current power allows the energy from tide movements to be exploited. This energy source has the advantages of long-term predictability and strong energy density, given that water is 830 times denser than air. Therefore, for an equivalent installed capacity, the rotor of a marine turbine only measures 18 meters in diameter whereas a wind turbine measures 50 m.

CEOs of the world’s leading tidal device developers to meet & collaborate at upcoming summit. CEOs from Atlantis Resources Corporation, Andritz Hydro Hammerfest, Marine Current Turbines, Tidal Generation (Rolls Royce) and Voith Hydro Ocean Current Technologies have again committed in 2012 to help push forward the tidal energy industry by continued collaboration and information sharing. They will be joined for the first time by Christopher Sauer, the President and CEO of the USA’s Ocean Renewable Power Company. The ORPC has made headlines this year by securing a PPA agreement with the Maine Public Utilities Commission to sell grid-connected power from their TidGen project in Eastport, giving a boost to device developers and manufacturers.

Innovative renewables company, Sustainable Marine Technologies (SMT), is restructuring its operations to take on today’s greatest challenge to ocean renewable energy – the high costs of device deployment and maintenance access. The dynamic marine integration engineering company, which only last year was nominated for Best Newcomer in the international Tidal Awards, will now become a technology developer. It has set itself the specific goal of developing a new generation of deployment and access solutions to create a major step change in reducing costs…