Tidal test-berth back up for grabs at Canada's Bay of Fundy
9/14/2012The government of Nova Scotia, Canada, has invited bids for the final tidal test-berth at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (Force) in the Bay Fundy.
The berth, one of four at the facility, is targeted at developers testing a single device or array of up to 5MW. It was vacated earlier this year by Nova Scotia Power (NSP).
Leases for the remaining berths were earlier awarded to projects from Alstom/Clean Current, Siemens-MCT/Minas Basin Pulp and Power, and Atlantis/Lockheed Martin/Irving Shipbuilding, with the first prototype installations expected next year.
Force will be made up of four 34.5kV submarine transmission cables connecting as many as 64 devices via an onshore monitoring station, with a 175MW-capacity spur line to a provincial grid-connection point.
The first turbine in the water is likely to be Alstom’s 1MW Beluga 9 machine, based on a forecast installation date of spring 2013.
NSP pulled out of its berth at Force, where it had planned to deploy OpenHydro’s open-centre concept, after early trials with the turbine in nearby waters fell short of expectations.
Force will also be home to the world’s first underwater monitoring platform designed specifically for extreme tidal conditions, following the award of a funding package from government and industry backers.
The installation – which will be piled into a five-metre per second flow at a water depth of 40 metres and connected to the facility’s observation room by submarine cable – is being built with C$10m from the government of Canada, Encana, Force’s berth-holders, and Ocean Networks Canada.
(Recharge)
