Tidal energy device developer Minesto UK Ltd is receiving a grant of up to £350,000 from UK’s Carbon Trust to deploy the first seagoing prototype of its innovative seakite technology, called ‘Deep Green’.
The device works like a kite, tethered to the seabed, which flies through the sea current carrying a turbine. If trials are successful, Minesto plans to deploy enough devices around the UK’s coastline to generate up to 530 gigawatt-hours (GWh) a year by 2020, enough to power the annual electricity needs for all households in a city approximately the size of Newcastle.
The new concept can operate in slower currents than any other known tidal energy technology, Carbon Trust said in a release. Deep Green’s kite-like structure flies in a figure eight, steered by a rudder, allowing it to effectively accelerate the speed of the water entering the turbine by up to ten times allowing more power to be generated leading to a step-change reduction in the cost of tidal energy.
The technology has the potential to unlock significant additional tidal resources by opening up whole new areas of low velocity tidal streams around the UK’s coastline to generate electricity.
The trial will see a one-tenth size version of the Deep Green device put through its paces off the coast of Northern Ireland.
The Carbon Trust first supported the concept through its Marine Energy Accelerator programme. Minesto also works with experts and prominent researchers and engineers at Det Norske Veritas UK, GL Garrad Hassan, Global Maritime Alliance, Queens University in Belfast, RPS Group and Strathclyde University in Glasgow.
Minesto has also recently been recognised at the Rushlight Awards. The jury, consisting of independent experts in the field, judged Minesto to be the winner of the Rushlight Marine and Hydro Award for the Deep Green technology.
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