Last October, a group of European offshore companies including Bluewater, Damen and Van Oord joined together to develop and build an innovative tidal energy converter that could be deployed worldwide, especially in coastal locations where electricity supplies are poor.
Bluewater is especially known to the Aberdeen oil & gas community as a production ship fleet owner and operator.
The BlueTEC prototype is ready for deployment and will be “launched” on April 9 at Den Helder by the consortium. It will be moored near Texel in the Waddenzee where there is ample tidal energy to harness.
The BlueTEC tidal platform features an innovative modular design and uses a new type of permanent mooring system. It vaguely resembles an old style midget submarine and is equipped with one or more pairs of underslung three-bladed turbine generators.
Once installed and commissioned, this will be the first time that a floating tidal converter has been used to generate electricity into the Dutch grid. It will provide local power to Texel. Expectation is that it will become operational by early summer.
In the original project announcement, Allard van Hoeken, head of new energy at Bluewater Energy Services, said: “This platform can be shipped and installed anywhere in the world, to provide clean electricity in remote areas and small islands, replacing expensive and polluting diesel generators.
“This smaller test platform, while ready to use in remote locations, is also a stepping stone for our larger 2-megawatt platform development.”
The Texel platform is a small version of the 2MW BlueTEC device. Aimed at remote locations, it consists of container size modules, can be assembled locally and installed without sophisticated equipment. The prototype will generate up to 200 kilowatts.
The full-size machine has been designed to be easy to build, install, operate & maintain and redeploy. It will be possible to tow the device to location without heavy lifting at sea. It will accommodate all vulnerable electronics equipment inside the hull, where it will be dry and protected, yet allowing for easy access for inspection, maintenance and repair.
The hull will be simple to disconnect and taken to a local port for heavy repair when required.
The full line-up of the BlueTEC consortium is: Bluewater, Damen, Van Oord, Tocardo, TKF, Vryhof, NIOZ, Nylacast and TTC bundles.
Between them they possess extensive experience in the maritime and offshore industries in the field of design and operation of mooring platforms, shipbuilding, offshore dredging and installation, tidal turbines, power cables, anchors, research at sea and synthetic materials.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Scotrenewables Tidal Power is preparing to take delivery of the world’s biggest and most powerful tidal turbine – about the same size as a WWII submarine – for trials off Orkney this summer.
The device is being built at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast and installation at the European Marine Energy Centre is planned for this summer, with towage north scheduled for next month. All being well, it will be grid-connected by the end of the year.
The initial design arose from work involving Barry Johnson, a Heriot-Watt PhD student, while studying at the university’s Orkney Campus.
The device incorporates two retractable rotors of 16m diameter mounted on the 64m hull, which allow the transport draught to be reduced to 6m for towing.
It weighs approximately 500 tonnes and should generate 2MW of electricity at 3m per second tidal velocity.
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