FOCUS ON IRELAND
FEATURE SPONSOR
POSITIVE INDUSTRY PROGRESS
Over the past two decades, the requirement for greater renewable electricity production and a global shift towards decarbonisation, has driven an expansion in the development of marine renewable energy technologies
2017 could be thought of as a break though year for in-stream tidal energy, with MW/hrs of generation coming on to the grid in Scotland from tidal, the initiation of Meygen, the world’s largest tidal energy project, construction of the world’s first tidal turbine production facility in France and technology progress abound.
COST REDUCTION With the greatest inroads in both technology and project achievements being delivered in the UK and Ireland, the stage is now set to continue to deploy both at scale and produce turbines at volume for a global market, which should reduce cost further and secure a future for the industry.
IN-STREAM TIDAL TURBINES OpenHydro, a Naval Energies company, was formally established in Ireland in 2004 and has been designing, building and manufacturing its in-stream tidal turbines for over a decade. The technology, the Open-
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www.wavetidalenergynetwork.co.uk
Centre turbine, is a bi-directional permanent magnet ring generator, mounted on a gravity base foundation. The technology has been deployed in Scotland, France and Canada as demonstration projects, which have informed the design of the standard product, a 16m diameter, 2MW maximum rated capacity turbine.
DEVELOPMENT
The next phase of development for the company is in optimising the technology and driving down cost. As part of this endeavour, OpenHydro and a consortium of four industrial partners, have been awarded €3m under the European Union’s Horizon2020 Fast Track to Innovation Call to deliver a project called the ‘Open- Centre Tidal Turbine Industrial Capability’ project (OCTTIC). The project aims to establish an industrial platform to deliver commercially viable technology at scale. This will require a step change in the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) attained by validating
the capability of the technology, improving efficiency and defining life cycle costs. The project will also support delivery of the Normandy Hydro project, a 14MW tidal array led by EDF.
FUTURE EXPECTATIONS By delivering benefits and improving the learning curve, the project outputs could help attract investment, boost global market penetration and launch the commercial phase of the tidal technology. The challenge now for all marine renewable technologies is to meet the key tests of reliability, efficiency and cost, in order for this innovative form of energy production to prove it can be cost competitive, in a low-carbon future and a highly competitive renewable energy market.
OpenHydro
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