Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Morgan Stanley Backed Atlantis Targets India China for Tidal Power Plants
Atlantis Resources Corp., an ocean- current turbine maker backed by Morgan Stanley, plans to expand in China, India and South Korea after winning a bid in the U.K. to build the world’s largest tidal-power project.
Atlantis Resources may start building a 50 megawatt tidal farm by 2012 in Gujarat, a western Indian state, and conduct commercial-scale trials in South Korea, Timothy Cornelius, the chief executive officer, said an interview today.
“China’s the next big market for tidal energy,” Cornelius, 34, said in Singapore at the Clean Energy conference. “It has the most natural tidal resources in the world and can be home to more than 1,000 megawatts of tidal energy.”
Global production of electricity harnessing the ocean waves may climb ten-fold to as much as 300 megawatts in the next couple of years, said Cornelius, a former submersible engineer who splits his time between Singapore and London. The potential to produce marine power economically is about 24,000 megawatts, he said. It costs 2.5 million pounds ($4.01 million) per megawatt for a minimum 200 megawatt-tidal project, he said.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Work starts on French offshore tidal power project
French utility giant Electricite de France is collaborating with Irish marine technology company OpenHyrdro to build the worlds largest tidal power station — essentially a giant underwater wind farm — off the northern coast of France (via Industrialinfo.com).
The new 8-megawatt facility consists of four tidal turbines and will be capable of generating enough energy to power around 4,000 homes. The first turbine was completed at the end of August and will undergo a series of tests before being installed on the subsea base at Paimpol-Bréha.
The project, which commenced work in 2008, will cost around €40 million ($56.5 million) and is expected to go live in 2012.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Tidal energy testing completed successfully
Neptune Renewable Energy Ltd announces that it has successfully completed a series of rigorous in-water tests on the multi-million pound full-scale demonstrator of its world-leading Proteus NP1000 tidal stream power generator. A key landmark in the testing process was the powering-up and generation of electricity as proof of the commercial potential of the device’s power curve.
A huge advantage of tidal power is that while the power isn’t steady, it is completely reliable and you know exactly when the power will be generated.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Historic Day for Tidal Energy in the US
Maine regulators have directed three utilities to buy 4 megawatts (MW) of tidal electricity from Ocean Renewable Power Company, making it the first state to commercialize ocean energy.Installation of the first unit began in March and in Cobscook Bay and will be finished by late summer, feeding electricity to the grid by October 1.
In fall 2013, the company will add four more devices with a total capacity of 900 kilowatts, enough to power about 100 homes.
The 4 MW project will suppy electricity for over 1000 homes by 2016.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a term sheet for the nations first power purchase contract for tidal energy, to be in place for 20 years.
The term sheet sets the price to be paid for tidal power at 21.5 cents per kilowatt hour, much higher than typical rates of 11-12 cents. The rate will rise 2% a year and makes the project feasible.
In making the decision, regulators looked at what the cost of fossil fuels would be over 20 years and decided they would likely be even higher. In fact, they see tidal energy being cost-competitive in as little as five years.
The International Energy Agencys International Vision for Ocean Energy sets a goal for the technology to be cost-competitive by 2020.
