lessons learnt from a pilot tidal energy plant

7/31/2019 Lessons Learnt From a Pilot Tidal Energy Plant

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80 Renewable Energy from Water & Subsurface

Lessons Learned from a Pilot Tidal

Energy Plant

Between 2008-2010 Ecofys realized a unique tidal stream pilot project in

the Southwest of The Netherlands. The project, dubbed C-Energy, was the

result of collaboration between 10 organizations including contractors,

NGOs, public authorities and research institutes such as Deltares. Belowthe project manager for the C-Energy project, Peter Scheijgrond, shares

his lessons learned.

Project plan and visionThe project plan must start with a clear vision of why you are taking the next step

in scaling up your technology and at what cost. There has to be a balance between

the learning objectives and the investment required for the project. In our case, we

wanted to focus on the performance of the core technology: the rotor and drive

train. All other parts were secondary and had to be designed to maximize the

learning potential from the core technology. That also meant we would not yet

focus on the mounting and foundation of the system for a commercial applica-tion. Too oen in the past, developers have taken too big steps in order to demon-

strate their technology at say scale, going to extreme locations and eventually

learning more about oshore installation than about the actual performance of

their core technology.

Choice of consortiumOpen Innovation versus confidentiality

Open Innovation is the key word here. When you want to learn from each other

with a limited budget and uncertain outcome, you need other organizations to

bring in the best available expertise for the tasks at hand. However, make sure

that critical components and the core technology stay fully within your own

control. Involve others for the more generic solutions and make sure you are

involved in all agreements and expectations between partners in the project. If

there are any parts that need IP (intellectual property) protection and you have

not yet done this, make sure you start the IP process before you start talking

to partners, because in Open Innovation you need to feel free to talk about all

the details of your technology from an early stage in the project. Confidentiality

hinders progress in getting the consortium together.

Small or large-scale companies?During the consortium-forming process, we learnt that it was easier to make

progress with smaller (SME) companies rather than the larger corporations.


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Considerations for Application

Lessons Learned

Although the latter may be more interesting from a strategic and investment

point of view, they were also more dicult to approach and to agree with on the

terms of participation. At this stage the main objective was to demonstrate the

technology, so we needed to move with flexible organizations, short communica-

tion lines and balanced interests.

Local or (inter)national?From an EU funding point of view and from a market potential point of view, it

would appear that an international consortium is the way to go. However, it slowsdown team communication despite all modern ICT tools available and it adds to

the project management cost. A strong local consortium has a powerful network

in the region of the project, which will come in useful during the various stages of

the project. A local consortium creates goodwill and a sense of involvement of the

community, at local governmental level and with the regulators. The strong local

content was also key to successfully securing funding from the European Fund for

Region Development (EFRO).

Utility involvementIdeally, a large utility would have been part of the consortium, because it would have

added prestige to the project. For various reasons, mostly related to conflicts ofinterest, we did not succeed in convincing a large utility to participate in the project.

Towards the commissioning phase of the project, we received ecient support from

a large Dutch utility in connecting the system to the grid and in making purchasing

agreements and kWh registration. Going through the complete process of grid

connection and power purchasing agreements was a good learning process.

Agreements & expectationsSince ocean energy is such a new and fascinating area of development, many

companies and NGOs new to the business are willing to participate in the project

without claiming ownership of IP or results, and even to invest partly in the project.

They will participate because they will learn in the project; it is good for their

project portfolio and it has tangible marketing and PR value. The bottom line is

that the companies involved expect to enter a new market or be involved in spin-

os that will repay their investment. When drawing up the agreements, it is wise

to clearly state each organizations reasons for participation and to define who is

entitled to what part of the IP, know-how and results. The involvement of a legal

person used to draing collaboration agreements is paramount in this process.

FinanceIt is very dicult to make an accurate budget in the early phases of the project,

when the scope is not yet fully defined. Make a reasonable estimate and double

it you may come closer to the actual cost of the project.


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82 Renewable Energy from Water & Subsurface

Look at subsidies and how you can combine public funding (e.g. local innovation

grants with EU funding, with special grants for local SMEs or provincial support,

awards or sponsorship from utilities or other public bodies). Co-financing comes

from the parties involved in the project. The party which claims most results from

the project should make the largest investment. In our case we received 25% from

an innovation grant and 40% from an EU programme. We invested 20% ourselves,

and 10% came from industrial parties and 5% from public organizations.

Site selectionWe drew up a list of criteria for the ideal testing site for our next phase in real

waters:

Minimum operational currents of 1.5 m/s, maximum 2.5 m/s

Minimum 10m depth to avoid seabed turbulence eects

Within 2-3 hrs drive of the development teams main oce

Not easily accessible for 3rd parties / public

Pilot installation of the Wave

Rotor in the Western Scheldt.


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Considerations for Application

Lessons Learned

Easily accessible with cranes to avoid oshore installation costs

Grid connection nearby

Possibility to have high speed internet connection for fast data transfer

No conflict of water use (e.g. nature reserve, shipping, or recreation etc)

We found most of these criteria at a location in Zeeland, which was already under

consideration as a tidal test site by the local municipality. It was a pier owned by

a refinery.

PermitsGetting permits is a slow process with many stakeholders, mainly authorities.

For our trial we needed to submit five permit applications. In this project the local

municipality oered to prepare and submit all permits, since they had an interest

in the successful implementation of the project. This proved to be a very good

solution, which saved a lot of time for the development team. The local munici-

pality had the right network with the issuing bodies, which greatly helped to

accelerate the process.

Design & engineeringThe most important lesson here was: start as soon as possible with a detailed

loading analysis of the system. It will determine all other engineering tasks and is

the main driver for the overall cost of the support construction.

Keep a logbook for each design decision, to avoid reiteration in the development

team.

RealizationSome important lessons in the realization phase were:

Make sure you have an adequate car insurance for all activities

Prepare a detailed Health & Safety document, stating working protocols and

what to do in case of an emergency

Plan sucient meetings with both the consortium and with other stake-

holders to inform everybody about the realization. Include relevant manage-

ment, communication, and Health & Safety sta.

Keep a detailed record of all changes in the scope of supply with contractors.

This will help during the final negotiations

Simulate (changes in) the installation process, preferably in a virtual 3D

environment. Does everything still fit together when you change the order of

installation?

Test fit all critical fittings before final assembly on site

Calibrate all sensors before site installation and carry out a signal test imme-

diately aer installation


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lessons learnt from a pilot tidal energy plant

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