The new certification standards will apply to all underwater tidal turbines and will benefit developers, investors, insurers and regulatory authorities. The ETI’s ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal) project provided data for the new standards. The project uses GE’s 1 MW buoyant tidal generator which was successfully deployed and tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
The new service specification provides a clear scope for type certification which is key to opening up commercial opportunities when moving from initial prototypes to volume production for tidal turbine developers. The standard applies to tidal turbines that are fixed to the seabed or floating and covers the structures, machinery, safety, controls and instrumentation and electrical systems.
The ETI invested £12.6 million to assist the delivery of the project by a consortium of GE Renewable Energy, E.ON, EDF, DNV GL, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), EMEC and the University of Edinburgh.
“Although the tidal industry is still in its infancy it is evolving all the time and the new standards mean that there is a set of certification guidelines now in place” said ETI Project Manager, Marine, Paul Trinick. “The work on our ReDAPT project has helped accelerate publication and will help to manage and reduce risk for developers and investors. The commercial impacts on developers become greater as the size of turbines and scale of planned arrays increases. Project developers will be interested in certifying their projects to satisfy their investors and insurers that they have controlled their risks.”
Paul Chesman, GE Renewable Energy ReDAPT project manager, added that the close cooperation with DNV GL during the ReDAPT project allowed the team to take the tidal industry standards forward and the results will benefit the entire sector.
According to Claudio Bittencourt, Business Development Director for wave and tidal in DNV GL, the need for a standard to manage risk and support commercialisation was identified in the very early stages of the tidal turbine industry development. The foresight and commitment provided by ETI enabled the rapid development of a tidal turbine service specification and standard built on a solid technical foundation.
During testing, the ReDAPT project generated over 1.2 gigawatts per hour (GWh) of electricity, achieved through months of continuous operation in a real tidal environment demonstrating that devices can be successfully deployed and retrieved in challenging marine conditions.
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