The Irish Government has announced a target of 500MW of tidal power generation connected to the national grid by 2020 under its National Strategy for Ocean Energy.
RPS has been working with OpenHydro since 2005. In this time the company has designed subsea gravity base structures which have been deployed at Orkney, Scotland and Nova Scotia, Canada and a pile mounted test facilities in Orkney as well as developing unique deployment and retrieval systems.
The test facility at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney is the first grid-connected energy device that operates on tidal flow in the UK. The test facility and the gravity base design and deployment has recently won the NI Construction Employers Federation 2009 innovation award, which acknowledges the unique and highly efficient deployment method developed by the RPS/McLaughlin & Harvey project team, working with the client to reduce installation time from a matter of weeks to just a few hours.
The test platform, set on 37m long steel piles which were cast into 8m deep sockets in the bedrock involved construction techniques using jack up barges in a very challenging environment where the tide never ceases and runs at speeds of up to 8kts. The construction, which was not without problems, was completed due to the partnering approach between client, contractor and consultant where difficulties were overcome through the contribution of all team members. The subsea cable that connects the Openhydro turbine test facility to the National Grid was also installed by McLaughlin and Harvey in challenging conditions using deployment methods developed by RPS and Openhydro.
Northern Scotland is generally noted as the optimum location for hydropower generation in the UK and Ireland because of its mountainous landscapes and strong tidal currents. The turbine has been operating at the EMEC test facility in the Falls of Warness, Orkney, in 20m of water with tidal velocities exceeding 8 knots, since its 2007 installation, and the client has now signed major contracts with Nova Scotia Power (Canada) and EDF Energy (France).
This is a major step to Openhydro’s target of deploying farms of subsea tidal turbines across the world – silently and invisibly creating a reliable flow of green and renewable energy.
Most recently RPS have designed and procured the fabrication of a 400 tonne gravity base structure and deployment frame for the installation and trial of OpenHydro’s pioneering 10m diameter, one-megawatt commercial scale turbine. This Turbine was successfully deployed on the gravity base in the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Passage –about 10km west of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia in Canada, on 12 November as part of the Canadian government’s target for 25% renewable electricity by 2015.
Devising the method for gravity base deployment also involved the procurement of a bespoke installation vessel. RPS assisted in designing a performance specification and in negotiating the fabrication contract.
RPS Ireland has more than 30 years experience in renewable energy and has worked on a range of renewable projects for sustainable power generation including the design and supervision of wave energy projects, various tidal energy projects and the resource determination for wind, wave and tidal developments.
Contact:
Openhydro Tidal Turbine Project:
Dr. Mike Shaw
T: +44 (0) 28 9066 7914
E: mike.shaw@rpsgroup.com
Openhydro Tidal Turbine Project – design, procurement, deployment, and Canada project management:
Adam Holland
T: +44 (0) 28 9066 7914
E: adam.holland@rpsgroup.com
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