The preliminary third-party analysis of the data collected from the monitoring equipment on OpenHydro tidal turbine, installed in the Bay of Fundy, has begun.
The report on the status of all monitoring devices has been submitted to Nova Scotia Environment Department by Cape Sharp Tidal, and Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE), according to CBC News.
“Staff is going over that report right now and will report the results back to the proponents,” Nova Scotia Environment Minister, Margaret Miller , said for CBC News.
The data from the 2MW tidal turbine, installed on November 7 by a joint venture Cape Sharp Tidal made of OpenHydro and Emera, is being collected from the combination of passive (icListen hydrophones) and active (Tritech Gemini) sonars mounted on the turbine.
The information is fed via 300-meter long interconnection cable that connects the turbine’s power and data systems to an existing 16MW subsea export cable at FORCE, which is connected to the onshore substation.
The work is expected to complement over 100 existing baselines studies, and contribute to a growing international body of research, according to Cape Sharp Tidal.
Sarah Dawson , Spokeswoman for Cape Sharp Tidal, said: “We are still in a commissioning phase. Testing of both the turbine and the monitoring devices is underway; however, data collection and preliminary analysis by a third-party has begun.”
Dawson added that the information about Cape Sharp Tidal’s monitoring program will be released in a quarterly report to regulators and stakeholders, and made available on its website.
Cape Sharp Tidal plans to complete the 4MW tidal array in 2017 with the addition of another 2MW tidal turbine to the site.