Pioneering Tidal Power Project in Canada’s Bay of Fundy
(Nova Scotia, Canada) British company Marine Current Turbines, the developer of SeaGen, the world’s largest and most advanced tidal stream energy system, has signed an agreement with Canada’s Maritime Tidal Energy Corporation to harness the huge tidal currents of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Maritime Tidal Energy Corporation (MTEC) and Marine Current Turbines (MCT) will shortly submit a joint proposal to the Nova Scotia Department of Energy to deploy MCT’s SeaGen technology in the Bay of Fundy, which has one of the greatest tidal resources in the world.
Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: “Working with MTEC in Canada, we will be using our unrivalled knowledge and experience from our 1.2MW SeaGen commercial tidal system as well as our previous work with our 300kW SeaFlow tidal project in the Bristol Channel, the world’s first offshore tidal stream device, to tap the massive potential that exists in the Bay of Fundy.”
Ron Scott of Maritime Tidal Energy Corporation added: “With MCT’s valuable engineering and environmental experience, MTEC can become a frontrunner in terms of in-stream tidal power development for the Bay of Fundy, and eventually elsewhere in the Atlantic Provinces and North America. This is a golden opportunity for Nova Scotia, which the Nova Scotia Government fully recognises, to provide the lead in marine energy generation in North America, moving away from carbon based fuel systems.”
The Nova Scotia Department of Energy plans to have tidal turbines operating in the Bay of Fundy during 2009. The Bay of Fundy is located on Canada’s eastern seaboard.
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Marine Current Turbines Ltd (www.marineturbines.com) is based in Bristol, England. The company was established in 2000 and its principal corporate shareholders include BankInvest, EDF Energy, Guernsey Electricity and Triodos Bank. With SeaFlow, the word’s first offshore tidal stream device and SeaGen, the world’s largest grid-connected tidal stream system, MCT is the “first mover” in the development of tidal turbines and has a significant global technical lead in this field.
Maritime Tidal Energy Corporation (www.maritimetidal.com) is a Halifax, Nova Scotia ocean resources company with a particular interest in the electric power potential of Bay of Fundy tides. Its directors have expertise in mechanical and civil engineering, marine structures, oceanography and modelling.
At 1.2MW capacity, MCT’s SeaGen is the world’s largest tidal current device by a significant margin, with the unit able to generate clean and sustainable electricity for approximately 1000 homes. It is also a world first in being the prototype for commercial technology to be replicated on a large scale over the next few years.
SeaGen has been built and is awaiting final assembly at Harland & Wolff’s shipyard in Belfast. A single SeaGen device is expected to be deployed in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, during the first quarter of 2008. The project has been partially financed by the UK Government through BERR (formerly the DTI).
Submitted by Paul Taylor (Taylor Keogh Communications).
Solar, wind, bio-fuels and fossil fuels all get their energy from the sun. Tidal energy is mainly from the gravitational pull of the moon. It seems like an unnatural source of energy. Are we doing something dangerous that could affect the moon’s orbit extracting energy from it?
October 30th, 2007 at 6:47 amThe energies extracted by “in stream” generators discussed for the Bay of Fundy are very small compared to the total energies involved in this resonance phenomena driven by the moon (mainly). It will not influence the moon’s motion in any significant way. However, earlier projects involving dams that changed the shape of the Bay significantly stumbled, in part, because models showed that this would result in higher tides. The shape of the resulting Bay was even closer to resonance. Similarly, if large -large compared to the enormous tidal energies involved- amounts of energy were extracted, it could change the resonance and consequently its amplitude, the tides.
November 17th, 2007 at 5:32 pm