Top news, June 4 – 10, 2018

MarineEnergy.biz has compiled the top news from marine energy industry from June 4 – 10, 2018.

More gold for MIDAS with €250K tidal-storage project grant

Dutch province of Zeeland has provided €250,000 from its public fund to support the joint, large-scale, north-west European tidal energy and battery storage project called the MIDAS.

Subsidized by EU through its Interreg North West Europe program with almost €11 million, the MIDAS project involves international project consortium – with France as the lead project country – and includes major European research centers, storage, and tidal energy companies.

The overarching goal of the MIDAS project – short for Marine energy Integrated with smart Distribution and Storage – is to demonstrate the technical and financial feasibility of using tidal energy plus energy storage to provide reliable and renewable baseload energy.

Wales endorses Hinkley Point C price offer for Swansea lagoon

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has called the UK government to offer price support for the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon ‘on the same terms’ to that agreed for the nuclear power station.

Writing to the UK energy secretary Greg Clark, the First Minister for Wales stated the tidal lagoon project uncertainties over the price subsidy should be ended by two governments – that of Wales and UK – making a ‘joint offer’ to the project developer Tidal Lagoon Power.

Speaking in broad term, Jones said that such an offer would include Welsh government commitment to an equity and/or loan investment of £200 million, with the UK government committing to a contract for difference of 92.50/MWh in 2012 prices over a 35-year term from the date of commissioning.

‘Promising’ trial prompts EEL Energy’s investment search

Following ‘promising’ tests in real conditions, EEL Energy has launched a funding raise with a maximum target of €7 million to support further development of its tidal energy technology.

In April 2018, the French developer conducted new set of sea trials in the harbor of Brest on its 1:6 scale membrane-based tidal power prototype.

This was the first tidal test result certified by Bureau Veritas in accordance with new European standard, according to EEL Energy.

Before the April trials, the undulating membrane – inspired by bio-mimicry and designed to work by imitating the swimming of the fish – faced the sea for the first time ever late in November last year at the same location.

US Energy Department cashes out $6.7 million for marine energy

Six awardees have been selected to receive a total of $6.7 million in federal funding for the development of innovative marine energy technologies.

The funding, provided by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Water Power Technologies Office, is expected to contribute in driving down the cost of energy from marine energy devices.

Naval Group and Microsoft install marine energy-powered datacenter

French industrial and defense giant Naval Group has collaborated with Microsoft on the second phase of Natick project which resulted in the recent installation of marine renewable energy-powered datacenter off the Orkney Archipelago.

The test base at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) provided a favorable environment for the installation of the datacenter that has been designed to remain immersed for five years without direct intervention, Naval Group informed.

The Naval Group-supported Microsoft initiative includes the objective to build, deploy and operate an underwater datacenter which is as powerful as several thousand high end consumer PCs with enough storage for about five million movies.