tidal – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

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Two Japanese companies have entered into a joint development agreement with Ireland-based DP Energy to work on the initial stages of a tidal energy project in Canada.

In statements released earlier this week, Chubu Electric Power and Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, or “K” Line, said the agreement related to the Uisce Tapa Tidal Energy project. The development is located at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy in the Bay of Fundy, a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Both Chubu Electric Power and “K” Line called it “the first tidal power project that a Japanese company will participate in overseas”.

According to DP Energy, the first phase of Uisce Tapa – Irish for “fast water” – revolves around three 1.5 megawatt turbines. The second aims to increase the capacity of the project to 9 MW.

Uisce Tapa is backed by a 15-year power purchase agreement with Nova Scotia Power Incorporated, which amounts to Canadian dollars 530 (approximately $ 422) per megawatt hour. It also benefits from a grant of approximately $ 30 million Canadian dollars from Natural Resources Canada.

In its announcement on Wednesday, DP Energy described the Bay of Fundy as “home to some of the highest tides in the world”. At the highest surface speed, the tidal currents are “capable of exceeding 10 knots” or 5 meters per second, he added.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the project is being considered for approval by Chubu Electric Power and “K” Line. If everything goes according to plan, the first turbine would go into operation in 2023, followed by two more in 2026.

The news comes the same week that tidal energy company Nova Innovation said it was able to move ahead with a project focused on increasing the production of tidal turbines after receiving funding from the Scottish government.

The £ 2 million ($ 2.77 million) funding increase announced on Thursday will be used to support the Volume Manufacturing and Logistics for Tidal Energy project, also known as VOLT.

According to Nova, VOLT will “develop the first European assembly line for the mass production of tidal turbines” and also “test innovative techniques and tools to ship, deploy and monitor turbines around the world”.

Last week, another company, Orbital Marine Power, announced that its O2 turbine had started producing electricity on-grid at the European Marine Energy Center in Orkney, an archipelago north of mainland Scotland.

The 2 megawatt O2 is known as the “strongest tidal turbine in the world”, weighs 680 tons and is 74 meters long.

The AR500 turbine is waiting to be installed in waters off the Japanese islands.

A tidal turbine built and tested in Scotland was installed in waters off a chain of Japanese islands. This is the latest example of the East Asian country studying the potential of marine forms of energy production.

In a statement on Monday, London-listed Simec Atlantis Energy said its pilot turbine generated 10 megawatt hours in the first 10 days of operation.

The AR500 turbine was assembled at a factory in Scotland before being shipped to Japan, where it was installed in waters off Naru Island, which is part of the larger Goto Island chain.

According to SAE, the overall project includes the leasing of tidal generation systems and the provision of offshore construction services for the Japanese company Kyuden Mirai Energy.

Graham Reid, CEO of SAE, described the installation as “a major milestone in the use of clean, renewable energy from tidal currents and we hope it will be the first of many tidal turbines installed in Japan”.

Monday’s news is the latest example of companies in Japan, an island nation with thousands of kilometers of coastline, turning to projects dealing with tidal and wave energy.

In January it was announced that the shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines will be working with a company called Bombora Wave Power to develop potential project locations in Japan and the surrounding regions.

The collaboration between Tokyo-based MOL and Bombora focuses on finding possible locations for the latter’s mWave system as well as hybrid projects combining mWave and wind energy.

In simple terms, the technology developed by Bombora, which has offices in the UK and Australia, is based on the idea of using rubber membrane cells that are filled with air and attached to a structure submerged in water.

According to a video by the company describing how its system works, the “flexible rubber membrane design pumps air through a turbine to generate electricity” when waves run across the system.

The International Energy Agency describes marine technologies as “great potential,” but adds that additional policy support is needed for research, design and development to “enable the cost reductions that come with bringing larger commercial plants up and running”.

For its part, Japan wants renewables to account for 22% to 24% of its energy mix by 2030.

In October last year, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country would target zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. By 2030, Japan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% compared to 2013.

However, work remains to be done to ensure that the country achieves its goals. In 2019, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said the country was “largely dependent on fossil fuels” such as coal, oil and liquefied natural gas.