Top news, August 13 – 19, 2018

MarineEnergy.biz has compiled the top news from marine energy industry from August 13 – 19, 2018.

Minesto’s tidal kite fit to fly full subsea trajectories

Swedish marine energy developer Minesto has completed the initial commissioning sea trials of its Deep Green tidal device off the coast of Holyhead, North West Wales.

Through the initial trials, a range of functionalities such as the kite control system, launch and recovery systems, connections and communications have been tested and verified in various sea states.

The results of the initial commissioning tests have shown that the 500kW tidal energy kite (DG500), which produces renewable energy from tidal streams and ocean currents, is ready to start ‘flying’ full subsea trajectories, according to Minesto.

Emera’s involvement in Cape Sharp Tidal ends

Emera has withdrawn from the joint venture Cape Sharp Tidal it formed with now defunct OpenHydro stating the project no longer represents the value for the Canadian energy business.

Canadian company Emera said it entered a process of examining the rights and obligations under various commercial agreements with its Irish partner OpenHydro, following the formal notification about withdrawal submitted to the company and its provisional liquidator Grant Thronton.

“Naval Energies essentially made the decision about the viability of the Cape Sharp Tidal project when they withdrew their support of the tidal energy industry,” said Cape Sharp Tidal.

DesignPro sinks Irish 60kW demonstration plans

Limerick company DesignPro Renewables has informed it will not be demonstrating the 60kW hydrokinetic turbine in Country Clare in Ireland due to constraints with project deliverables and timelines.

Namely, DesignPro Renewables withdrew foreshore license application for the demonstration of the turbine that was to take place on the Fergus Estuary near Cahiracon.

The proposed demonstration was for a duration of 12 months to carry out testing on the technology as part of the Horizon 2020-funded project that received €2.7 million for the commercialization of the small-scale hydrokinetic turbines.

Transatlantic link-up to expedite marine storage development

UK-based engineering company Blackfish has teamed up with its Canadian counterpart Venn Design Solutions to further explore development of storage systems for marine energy.

Venn is a multidisciplinary renewable energy design house, similar to Blackfish, but with specialist areas of knowledge in electrical engineering and energy storage solutions.

The main renewable energy technologies they have worked with to date have been wind and solar PV installations, according to Blackfish.

Enel primes OPT’s PowerBuoy for Chilean waves

Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has signed an agreement with Enel Green Power to evaluate the deployment methods of its wave-powered PB3 buoy along the coast of Chile.

Under the terms of the contract, OPT will conduct a detailed feasibility study of the PowerBuoy as an offshore autonomous platform hosting oceanographic sensor systems off Chile.

The feasibility study will assess best transport, deployment and servicing methods using local companies and suppliers, as well as necessary sensors and payloads to be mounted on the PB3 PowerBuoy, said the US-based developer OPT.