Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (PTEC) has announced major partnerships with global tidal turbine manufacturers, Schottel Hydro and Tocardo Tidal Turbines.
PTEC is a 30 MW tidal tidal energy generation project being created off the Isle of Wight. It will enable the long-term operation of Schottel and Tocardo turbine arrays, to optimize their performance as well as deliver power to the grid.
The project achieved all key consents earlier this year and has a signed grid connection offer. Following the partnerships with Schottel and Tocardo being agreed, full operations are expected to start from 2020.
Project Director, Mark Francis said: “We are very pleased to announce that Tocardo and Schottel Hydro are partnering with us to deliver 30 MW of predictable electricity generated from the tidal currents to the south of the Isle of Wight. This is a major milestone for the project, which is of strategic importance to the UK’s tidal industry and will accelerate the growth of the sector as well as enable a continued cost reduction path for future tidal stream projects. Working with world leading and state-of-the-art turbine manufacturers under our unique project structure will be the key to our success.
"We are currently working with Schottel Hydro and Tocardo to identify the optimal site layout and designs, taking into consideration the outputs of our Environmental Impact Assessment and consented envelope. These decisions will be finalized in due course, with onshore construction scheduled to begin next year.”
Schottel's managing director Niels A. Lange said: “We are excited to join such a ground-breaking development and world-class team and look forward to seeing PTEC drive the development of tidal power both in the Solent area and, indeed, worldwide.
"We will be spearheading this development through our UK subsidiary TidalStream, which has been active in this industry for over five years. One of the benefits of our Triton platform technology is the maximizing of local manufactured content. For our demonstrator in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia – due to be installed next year – the local content will be in the order of 75%, bringing manufacturing jobs and benefits to the local community. We are constantly seeking ways to advance our technology and ensure it is fully commercialized for worldwide production. PTEC is the perfect opportunity for us to achieve this.”
Tocardo's CEO Hans van Breugel said: “Engaging with PTEC is a significant step in the commercialization process of Tocardo's standard offshore tidal solution, the UFS. After having deployed our turbines at various sites in the Netherlands and operating these projects successfully, we feel confident to jointly realize this world leading multi-MW tidal energy farm at the Isle of Wight. PTEC follow a thorough step-by-step process towards successful project deployment, just like Tocardo does in product development, and we are proud to have been selected.”
Subscribe
