Sweden-based marine energy technology firm Minesto has placed orders with German tidal turbine manufacturer Schottel Hydro to deliver for a prototype turbine for the 10MW Deep Green underwater tidal power plant in the Holyhead Deep seabed area west of Anglesey, Wales, UK.
Under the terms of the contract, Schottel Hydro will deliver the prototype turbine, known as Power Take Off system, to meet the requirements of Deep Green tidal power plant.
The turbine is scheduled to be delivered in early 2017.
The deal follows completion of detailed design of the turbine and power conversion system by Schottel Hydro for the Deep Green tidal power plant.
Additionally, German Schiffbau Versuchsanstalt has established and verified the prototype design through model tests in Potsdam.
Schottel Hydro technical director Martin Baldus said: "The model scale tests prove the turbines performance and cavitation behavior to be advantageous compared to previous designs. The integration of our scope of supply into the Minesto kite system works out very well."
The development of the turbine has resulted in a larger rotor diameter with five blades instead of three.
Minesto CEO Martin Edlund said: "We are very pleased to have completed and verified the turbine design for Deep Green.
"Compared with the first generation Deep Green, the turbine’s performance has been improved by about 10%."
Minesto will initially install a 500,000kW power plant with subsequent deployments that will increase the capacity to 10MW by 2019.
Edlund added: "In parallel with the final design we procure subsystems and components which will be assembled into a first full-scale demonstrator. It will then undergo final functionality testing.
"After that, we are ready to implement Deep Green in full scale on the offshore facility in Wales during 2017."
The Deep Green marine power plant is designed to generate electricity from low velocity tidal currents.
Image: Illustration of the Deep Green marine power plant. Photo: courtesy of SCHOTTELGroup.