Nautricity Ltd. and Fundy Tidal Inc. have signed an MoU to develop a 500kW tidal project in Nova Scotia, Canada’s Petit Passage.
Nautricity is completing system testing of its CoRMaT and Hydro-buoy technologies at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The project at Petit Passage provides flows similar to those at the EMEC site and approach the speeds found at the FORCE site in Nova Scotia.
Cameron Johnstone, CEO of Nautricity said: “This is a great platform to demonstrate how new approaches to the development of tidal energy projects can deliver benefit to both Nova Scotia and Scottish companies. The opportunity for tidal development around the world is immense, and Scotland and Nova Scotia have some of the best resources and best developed regulatory regimes anywhere.”
Vince Stuart, President of Fundy Tidal stated: “We have been in discussions with Nautricity for a couple of years and are most pleased that both our companies have evolved to the stage where we are now formerly working together in the delivery of the Petit Passage project. This partnership is a concrete example of the desire of both the Scottish and Nova Scotia governments and industry to foster collaboration on marine energy developments.”
Expected deployment of the turbine in Nova Scotia will be in late summer of 2015. The MoU not only facilitates the delivery of this important project, but provides for collaboration on a wide range of issues from grid connection and storage, to participating in research and development initiatives at both Scottish and Nova Scotia universities.
Andrew Younger, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Energy , said: “This is an example of the kind of collaboration and partnerships we are promoting and developing between Nova Scotia and Scottish companies and universities.”
Scotland’s Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing said: “I am delighted that Nautricity, a Scottish tidal energy company, has signed this MoU with Fundy Tidal Inc. to deploy its innovative tidal technology at Petit Passage in the Bay of Fundy and develop a leading project in Nova Scotia.”
“Scotland is a world leader in the developing market in wave and tidal stream energy. We are fortunate to have home grown technologies and excellent green energy resources and this is the type of cooperation and collaboration that is needed to drive the tidal stream industry forward globally.”
Nautricity, a University of Strathclyde spin out company, is a tidal energy technology developer based in Glasgow, Scotland developing next generation tidal energy solutions. They have recently received full consenting for their tidal site at the Mull of Kintyre in southwest Scotland.
Fundy Tidal is a community based tidal developer in Nova Scotia which has approval for 3MW of tidal COMFIT projects in Digby County.