On Friday, Swedish marine energy developer Minesto announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Schneider Electric, the $72 billion European energy, infrastructure and automation multinational, to develop undersea energy farms based on Minesto’s patented Deep Green technology.
Together, Minesto and Schneider Electric will work toward accelerating commercial roll-out of marine energy to enable the global transition towards net-zero energy production. The companies will engage with lead-users among independent power producers and electric utilities and integrate Schneider Electric’s expertise and product suite with Minesto’s tidal and ocean current energy technology. The companies will jointly identify and develop projects ranging from smaller microgrid installations to multimegawatt farms.
How it works
Minesto’s marine energy technology, called Deep Green, generates electricity from low-flow tidal streams and ocean currents by a patented principle that Minesto likens to “a stunt kite flying in the wind.”
Minesto’s undersea power plant (which actually resembles a hobbyist’s model plane) consists of five components: wing, turbine, nacelle, rudders, struts, and a tether. Essentially, the wing carries a turbine that is directly coupled to a generator in a nacelle (a kind of tank) in the kite’s midsection. The kite’s rear rudders (and control system) steer it in a predetermined trajectory (a figure eight). The turbine is held in place by struts connected to a tether, which attaches bottom joint at the seabed foundation. The tether accommodates a rope and cables for communication and power distribution.
The wing uses the hydrodynamic lift force created by the underwater current to move the kite. By moving in this figure-eight formation, the turbine experiences water flow several times higher than the actual stream speed. The turbine diffuses power to the generator, which outputs electricity via a power cable in the tether, and this electricity is then transferred through a seabed umbilical to the onshore connection.
According to Minesto, tidal energy has key advantages over intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Tides and ocean currents are almost 100 percent predictable, making it a more reliable energy generation source that is available on all continents, and is unaffected by weather or climate conditions. They note that moving water is 832 times denser than moving air, creating an ideal environment for efficient energy conversion.
And because ocean currents are continuous, Minesto says they enable capacity factors of 70 to 95 percent, thus doubling the energy output per installed megawatt, providing renewable base-load power to the grid, and lowering the cost of energy.
Moving toward commercialization
Commenting on the Schneider Electric MOU, Minesto CEO Dr Martin Edlund called it a “strategic partnership that will play a pivotal role in the commercial rollout of Deep Green technology.”
“Beyond this, we will work to use this partnership to establish thought leadership and inform decision-makers on the opportunities and advantages of new complementary renewable energy technologies, not least building completely sustainable energy systems based on predictable baseload power generation from the ocean.”
Founded in 2007, Minesto currently operates in Sweden, Wales, Northern Ireland and Taiwan, and is the European Union’s largest investment in marine energy to date. Minesto shares (MINEST) are traded on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market. The company has received more than EUR 40 million (about $48 million) in funding rom the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh European Funding Office, European Innovation Council and InnoEnergy.
“We look forward to working with Minesto to bring ocean energy into the global renewable energy mix, balancing variable renewables with predictable, renewable baseload. For us it has been of significant importance to enter the marine energy sector together with a partner developing a game-changing technology with both a global market and a potential for energy production at competitive cost of energy,” Gary Lawrence, Power and Grid Segment President at Schneider Electric said:
