Swedish tidal energy developer Minesto, together with industry and academia partners, have been granted research funds totalling SEK 5.7 million by the Swedish Energy Agency for further development of its Deep Green tidal energy technology.
Swedish tidal energy developer Minesto, together with industry and academia partners, have been granted research funds totalling SEK 5.7 million by the Swedish Energy Agency for further development of its Deep Green tidal energy technology.
Two research projects have received the funding to help optimise the first full-scale model of the technology. The first – Cost Efficiency of Marine Energy Converters – is a collaboration between Minesto, SSPA and Moorlink and the project is customised for Deep Green. It will focus on improvements to the mooring and rudder design, as well as on full-scale simulations.
The second research project is ‘The Way of the Dragon: Optimisation of subsea power plants’ and is a collaboration between Minesto, University of Gothenburg's Department of Marine Sciences and Chalmers University of Technology. The project will allow Minesto access to state of the art turbulence modelling, specifically designed for the company.
“The Swedish Energy Agency's decision to grant funds for these two projects is a clear sign of confidence in the potential of our technology and in Minestos ability to realise it,” commented Dr Heije Westberg, CTO of Minesto. “This is research funds earmarked for strengthening the further development of Deep Green. The knowledge that will be generated in the projects benefits us, our partners in the projects and hopefully the whole sector of marine energy.”
Minesto’s patented technology Deep Green has been developed over nearly a decade and for the last three years quarter scale ocean testing is on going outside the coast of Northern Ireland. In parallel to this, Minesto is developing its first power plant in full scale, which is to be launched in Wales in the summer of 2017.