HydroWing is gearing up for deployment of its next generation tidal energy technology, following the recent announcement that HydroWing has been awarded a contract for a 10MW tidal stream energy project in Wales.
HydroWing was the largest tidal stream project in Wales to be successful in the UK government's latest Contracts for Difference round. The project will be located at the Morlais tidal energy site in Anglesey, which is managed by the social enterprise Menter Môn. The Morlais site is the UK's largest consented tidal energy scheme.
Richard Parkinson, MD of Inyanga Marine Energy Group, which is the parent company for HydroWing, said: "The Morlais project is a major milestone in our quest to become the largest provider of tidal energy arrays in the world."
HydroWing is now starting intensive work on delivering the project, including engaging with local stakeholders and supply chain companies while also establishing a presence in Anglesey. A comprehensive research project has already been conducted in partnership with Bangor University to assess the velocity of local tide currents. The outputs from this have been very encouraging in informing expectations on the yield characteristics of the site.
Richard Parkinson continued: "This ground-breaking project will launch our innovative tidal stream technology at utility scale. Commercialisation of the tidal energy sector has so far been held back by high operations and maintenance costs. Our next generation technology meets that challenge head on."
HydroWing is designed to be a cost-effective and scalable solution to tidal stream energy generation. A supporting structure sits on the seabed, under its own weight. The wings' which hold the turbines are then lowered into position on this structure. This makes HydroWing very straightforward to deploy. The turbines are bi-directional, so they generate power as the tide comes in and as it goes out. These turbines are also cost-effective to produce at scale.
Richard Parkinson explained: "The HydroWing technology to be used for the Morlais project will incorporate the next generation Tocardo T-3 turbines. We have been working on the development of a Passive Pitch Mechanism which integrates with the Tocardo Bi-Blade system allowing the blade dimensions to be increased, while shedding pitch at higher loads. This is similar to an active pitching mechanism but without compromising the reliability for which the Tocardo Turbines are well known. This increases the yield by 50-60% and makes projects in lower flow locations more feasible and investible.
"HydroWing and QED Naval joined forces in 2020 to work together on Tocardo because we could see the huge potential of this turbine technology. The Tocardo T-3 turbines design builds on insights from the 1.25MW tidal energy demonstration array in Eastern Scheldt, which completed last month.
"The HydroWing team have scrutinised every aspect of our technology to ensure we have optimised each area in terms of cost reduction and improving efficiency so as to be able to deliver a truly commercially viable project at Morlais, with deployment in 2027.
"Tidal energy is a crucial part of the mix to help achieve net zero targets. We believe that this tidal stream project will be a stepping stone towards lowering the costs for tidal energy and that our innovative HydroWing technology will help unlock the commercial viability of tidal energy around the world."
For more information, contact lynn@brandinnovation.co.uk
About Inyanga Marine Energy Group
Inyanga Marine Energy Group is an innovative company which is developing cutting edge solutions for the global offshore renewables industry.
Inyanga Marine Energy Group operate a highly experienced and specialised team of offshore engineers from their base at Jubilee Wharf near Falmouth, UK.
Inyanga Marine Energy Group has two divisions - HydroWing, which focuses on tidal energy technology development, and Inyanga Maritime, which delivers offshore engineering and installation.
The company aims to advance through to deployment the innovative tidal energy converter, the HydroWing, to provide cost-effective, reliable and predictable power to communities around the globe.
For more information, visit https://inyangamaritime.com/ and https://hydrowing.tech/
About Morlais Tidal Energy Site
Morlais is Menter Môn's tidal stream energy project. It manages an area of 35 km2 of the seabed near Holy Island, Anglesey. The scheme has the potential to generate up to 240MW of low carbon clean electricity. The aim is to play a role in tackling climate change while delivering economic and social benefit to local communities and the wider region.
The project and the way in which it will operate is unique, and the only one of its kind in the world. Morlais provides the necessary infrastructure in the zone, including a connection to the national grid and a substation on the shore. It rents berths to various turbine development companies so they can use tidal energy to generate electricity. This may mean different types of electricity generation technology will be installed at sea as part of Morlais.
For more details visit: https://www.morlaisenergy.com/en/about-us/the-morlais-story
About Tidal Stream Energy
In a 2022 report, the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult commented:
"Tidal stream is an emerging and exciting renewable energy source The resource is highly predictable and can be accurately forecasted years ahead of time, unlike other renewables like wind and solar.
"It is also completely decoupled from other renewable resources, improving energy source diversity and providing resilience against extreme weather events.
"Tidal technology is currently expensive compared to other renewables. However, it is on a steep cost reduction trajectory and has unique properties that give it advantages for a role in the wider energy system. This is because greater value can be placed on the quality of the energy (predictability and dependability), as this will reduce system costs in areas associated with balancing, reserve capacity and curtailment."
For more info, see: https://ore.catapult.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AI-paper-tidal-stream-benefits-to-the-wider-energy-system-v1.1.pdf
