Leading marine renewable energy company Minesto, together with ac&e and other partners, received EUR 5.1 million, to develop Minesto’s Deep Green technology within a project named Powerkite. The project was financed through EU Horizon 2020.

The Powerkite project continued development of a next generation power takeoff system (PTO) for a novel tidal energy device, the Minesto Deep Green subsea tidal kite. The objective was to enhance the performance of the PTO to ensure high survivability, reliability & performance, low environmental impact and competitive cost of energy.

The Deep Green concept is to extract tidal energy by “flying” a turbine through water. The flow velocity through the turbine is an order of magnitude higher than for a fixed turbine and so the device can operate at relatively low velocity tidal flows, extending the ocean energy potential substantially. The turbine is mounted on a nacelle hung from a rigid wing and drives a generator to convert the tidal energy into electricity, which is transmitted along tether cables connecting this kite-like device to the seabed and then on via an electrical array sub-system to the grid.

ac&e brought its expertise in CFD/FSI, hydrodynamics and system optimisation to develop a predictive modelling tool to quickly investigate kite configurations to maximise energy yield.

ac&e’s partners consisted of Minesto, Chalmers University of Technology, Midroc Project Management AB, SSPA Sweden AB, Laborelec, UW-Elast, Moorlink Solutions AB and Queens University Belfast.  The project ran for 36 months.

For additional information please email  anthony.mosquera@acel.co.uk

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654438.