SCOTTISH MARINE RENEWABLES BUSINESS AIMS TO DISRUPT ENERGY SECTOR FOLLOWING ACQUISITION OF WORLD’S LARGEST TIDAL TURBINE ARRAY
• CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN HAS GONE LIVE TO DEVELOP EXISTING PROJECTS.
13 JANUARY 2021: Edinburgh based marine renewables specialist QED Naval is expanding its plans to disrupt the energy sector with its environmentally friendly sustainable tidal solution following the acquisition, through its subsidiary Tocardo BV, of the Dutch Oosterschelde Tidal Power (OTP) project, the largest tidal turbine array in the world.
The company has launched its first crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs platform. The funding will assist further develop existing sites and to secure potential new locations for its patented Subhub tidal platform.
The OTP deal closed in the last quarter of 2020 following QED’s acquisition of the world renowned Dutch tidal turbine developer Tocardo BV in a joint venture with Hydrowing. The company (QED) also secured an award of €3.5m of EU funding and a place on Interreg’s €46m Tidal Stream Industry Energiser Project (TIGER), a global tidal showcase, also in January 2020.
QED Naval’s self-deploying foundation system, Subhub, saves circa 60% on deployment, operating and maintenance costs alone de-risking dependency on and simplifying offshore operations. On top of this it adds up to 48% yield to the bottom line transforming the cost of tidal energy and enabling QED Naval to compete with other forms of renewables, at scale, by 2030.
Jeremy Smith, MD at QED Naval said: “Tidal energy is not only renewable, it is the only one that is 100% predictable, can guarantee power output every day of the year, and globally will be worth $76bn by 2050. So, when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not out, tidal can quite simply fill the gaps in our grid requirement and prevent us having to switch to diesel, gas or coal power.
“The acquisition of the Oosterschelde Tidal Power (OTP) project in late 2020 brought QED Naval an EU base and additional customer pipeline with further global opportunities which is very exciting for the business and shows clearly our drive to build international growth for the business. We are already in discussions with parties in South East Asia and Japan and currently developing a partnering agreement in Singapore.”
According to ORE Catapult, tidal energy to the UK alone is estimated at £1.4bl GVA creating 4000 jobs by 2030 (8100 jobs by 2040) and getting to ‘net zero’ by 2050 (driving carbon emissions down by 1Mt per year by 2030 and 4Mt by 2040). *see notes to editors
Keith Murray, QED Naval’s Chief Commercial Officer added: “Scotland and the rest of the UK, with 50% of Europe’s tidal energy and ranking number 2 in global resource availability after Canada, has a tremendous opportunity to benefit. The UK and Scottish Governments are firmly behind the development of tidal energy and QED, with its expertise, products and sites is at the forefront of tidal technology.
“We also see an increasing role for using battery storage and particularly hydrogen solutions as when combined with our turbine solution there is an incredible potential for stand-alone tidal energy units to take island, isolated communities, maritime diesel generators, right off the grid – significantly reducing carbon emissions.”
The OTP project is installed on the iconic Dutch Oosterschelde storm barrier which measures nearly eight kilometres in length and connects the Zeeland islands of Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beveland. Part of the Delta Works, it was built to protect the Zeeland region from the sea after the North Sea Flood in 1953.
The TIGER project has enabled QED Naval to develop the next generation of their Subhub tidal platform technology to suit the next generation of Tocardo tidal turbines, T3, which are a development of the T2’s that has proved itself in the OTP project over 4 years. This tripartite collaboration (QED/Tocardo/HydroWing) that can deliver turnkey tidal energy projects at any scale from community sub-one MW to utility scale of hundreds of MWs at competitive prices.
The successful acquisition of the OTP project was as a result of close public and private sector collaboration between QED Naval, Rijkswaterstaat (part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) and a prominent global, green investment fund.
As well as being deployed at the TIGER, Isle of Wight project, QED’s Subhub Community Demonstrator, which has now been in the seas off Northern Ireland, Strangford Lough, for nearly two years, will be refitted with Tocardo tidal turbines and deployed to Pembroke in Wales to access further market potential there.
Ends
For further information please contact Keith Murray at QED Naval on 0131 557 8049 or keith@qednaval.co.uk
Notes to editors
QED Naval was founded in 2008 by current managing director Jeremy Smith with a strong background and experience in naval architecture and marine services particularly designing marine platforms and foundation systems. As one of the industry’s leading developers and experts of tidal energy QED Naval sits on the Marine Engineering Council. https://www.qednaval.co.uk
It has secured its first 5MW consented and approved site, with further options on up to 30MW, which continues on from the TIGER project and starts in 2023. It also has, through Tocardo and Dutch regional funds a part funded 1- 5MW project in development which will test and further develop tidal energy for islands and dams there. It has a pipeline of named sites in the UK and EU of around 300MW in which discussions have been entered.
To view the Oosterschelde Tidal Power (OTP) project please visit:- https://youtu.be/f03o1ydbC1A
The Tidal Stream Industry Energiser Project, known as TIGER, is an ambitious €45.4m project, of which €29.9m (66%) comes from the European Regional Development Fund via the Interreg France (Channel) England Programme. https://interregtiger.com/about-tiger
Tocardo’s technology development started in 1999 in cooperation with the Energy Research Foundation ECN and various Dutch engineering companies. First prototyped in 2005, Tocardo has an unbeaten track record of continuous tidal power production for nine years in a row. Since then it developed turbines and associated technologies, achieving 90% – 100% energy yield performance. Tocardo has 9 turbines in continual operation and has 21 patents in place. A focus on reliability, with very low operations and maintenance costs has resulted in industry leading levelised costs of energy (LCOE). Tocardo’s turbines are direct drive, i.e. without a gearbox or mechanical pitch mechanism. They have a patented, smart rotor bi-blade design, which enables it to be bi-directional with a guaranteed 20-year lifetime.
ORE Catapult report: https://ore.catapult.org.uk/press-releases/new-report-shows-tidal-stream-and-wave-energy-can-pass-uk-governments-triple-test-for-emerging-technology-support/