Tender for new turbines soon to be launched for wave energy power plant in Spain

The Energy Agency of the Basque Government (EVE) has confirmed it would soon launch a €3.2 million public procurement process for the purchase of new turbine technology for the Mutriku wave energy power plant.

The announcement of the tender follows the preliminary market consultation, opened by EVE in late December 2021, with the aim of informing potential suppliers about the initiative and obtain data for the design of the tender ahead of its release.

The €3.2 million procurement process will be run as part of the TurboWave project, whose aim is to procure technologically innovative air turbine solutions for the wider wave energy sector, and more specifically, for the Mutriku wave power plant located at the breakwater in the Bay of Biscay.

According to EVE, the TurboWave project expects to have prototype air turbines installed and fully operational at the Mutriku wave power plant for a significant period of around 12 months to demonstrate the desired characteristics.

On October 19, EVE presented the results of the preliminary market consultation and the key aspects of the soon to be launched tender.

According to the agency, a number of companies and organizations participated in the process, including AST Engineering, CALGE, BYTEK-ALTERIA Automation, IDOM, Arrecife Energy Systems, OceanEnergy and Trinity College Dublin.

The mentioned companies presented their technologies at the International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) and Ocean Energy Europe‘s joint event, currently being held in Spain. According to EVE, this could possibly result in the creation of consortiums that would better respond to the terms of the tender.

When it comes to the tender, the currently available information suggests it would be held as a stage-gate process to ultimately deliver the most appropriate solution in accordance with the proposed budget.

Equipped with oscillating water column (OWC) units with a total installed capacity of 296kW, the currently operational Mutriku power plant is said to produce approximately 300MWh annually, which is equivalent to the electrical energy consumed by 100 homes in one year.

Since its commissioning in 2011, the plant has produced more than 2.4GWh of clean power to the Basque Country’s electricity grid, according to the latest available information by EVE.

The public procurement process is run jointly by EVE and the Basque Business Development Agency (SPRI Group), with the support of the Basque Government as it aims to promote innovation and business competitiveness in the public sector.

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