The Swedish Energy Agency has awarded tidal power developer Minesto a grant to help the ongoing commercialisation of the latter’s Deep Green technology.
The Skr5.8m (€572,000) finance co-funds a project through which Minesto will develop and verify a next-generation tether system to facilitate the commercial scale-up of the technology to 3MW and beyond.
The tether system connects Minesto’s marine energy power plants with the seabed foundation and is composed of the tether rope and cables for communication and power.
It is a subsystem of Minesto’s Deep Green technology with great impact on the levelised cost of energy, the company said.
Minesto chief executive Martin Edlund said: “We are very pleased that the Swedish Energy Agency continues and expands its support for Minesto.
“This investment contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of our product.”
Minesto chief technology officer Bernt Erik Westre said: “We know there is significant potential to enhance the tether system’s functionality and performance and reduce its complexity.
“This is related to areas such as hydrodynamic properties, dynamic loads, and electricity transmission with low losses.”
Edlund added: “This initiative is an integral part to scale up both the size of individual power plants and production volumes in numbers.
“There are great synergies with our existing projects and the ongoing procurement and manufacturing of the new Dragon Class power plants.”
Swedish Energy Agency’s Pierre-Jean Rigole said: “Tidal power is expected to be part of the future electricity mix and can contribute to the energy transition in many countries.
“It is a predictable energy resource that can reduce the need for energy storage for other forms of renewable energy.
“Minesto and other Swedish marine energy technology developers are leaders in the field, which makes it an industry with export potential for Sweden.”