BlueTEC Tidal Energy Platform Successful

The BlueTEC Texel Tidal partnership has announced that the first months of operating the BlueTEC tidal energy platform have been a success. With every tidal flow, the platform supplies electricity into the Dutch national grid. The next turbine – a Tocardo T2 – will be installed before the winter, doubling the platform’s capacity. A few months after that a second T2 turbine is to be installed. With two turbines working simultaneously this will double the capacity once again to reach the 400-500kW mark.

The platform was realised from the drawing board to a grid-connected operating reality in just 6 months, according to Allard van Hoeken, head of New Energy at Bluewater Energy Services and recent recipient of the first Prince Friso Engineers Award. The electricity production is following expectations, the mooring loads are lower than expected and the stability is better than expected.

Shortly after its launch this summer the platform’s new moorings passed their first serious tests with flying colours as two large storms passed over the area.

With the platform up and running smoothly, the project partners are now looking forward to the next step in its development. In a couple of months, Bluewater will proceed to even larger units of 2.5MW each.

Remote Locations

These units can supply clean energy to islands and remote locations below the cost of diesel generators. In addition, what the industry may only be starting to realise, is that they also pave the way towards large, utility-scale tidal farms. Starting with 500kW units means using existing technology and a small grid setup, hence keeping the required investment and associated risks to a minimum. In the following step, the 2.5 MW units will be used for full development.

The BlueTEC platform serves as a demonstrator model. The platform’s ease of maintenance illustrates the advantages of a floating system perfectly. It has been very easy to solve any issues that arose. The platform can be reached with a small boat, engineers can open the watertight door and enter the electronics room, fix and replace something and be back on the shore an hour later.

Celebration

To celebrate the milestone moment of first electricity generation, the Texel Tidal Project partners held an open reception at the Offshore Energy Exhibition at the Amsterdam RAI, the Netherlands. This was an opportunity to meet the various partners and to learn more about the project. The reception was held on Tuesday 13 October from 16.00 to 18.00 at the Damen and TKF exhibition booths (#9.023 & #9.017). On Wednesday 14 October, the project results were presented at the special Marine Energy event from 12.30 – 18.00.