UK-based Sustainable Marine is adopting cutting-edge aerospace and wind energy technology in a new project to drive the evolution of tidal turbine foils.
The marine renewables specialist is leading the EvoFoil project in partnership with German organisations M&D Composites Technology and Leibniz Universität Hannover Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools.
The EvoFoil project aims to deliver a series of design innovations to optimise the performance of tidal turbine foils while driving down production and operation costs.
Sustainable Marine is receiving advisory services and up to $578,000 (€480,000) in research and development funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) for the two-year project.
Additionally, the German partners on this project are receiving funding support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) through the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM).
Sustainable Marine head of power systems Ralf Starzmann said: “The project will address key areas of the foil design including the tip geometry and the overall composition involving a new ‘multi-material’ concept.
“It will enable us to deliver an extensive field and lab testing campaign combining decades of knowledge and experience from across sectors to take our tidal foil technology to the next level.
“Our German partners bring strong expertise in their respective fields including world-class knowledge from the aerospace and wind energy sectors.
“We believe there are several key interventions which can be made to further optimize our foil performance and help drive evolution in the tidal energy market more broadly.
“These design factors will play an important role addressing areas such as energy extraction, power curve deterioration and operating and maintenance costs.
“EvoFoil represents another important step to reduce Levelized Cost of Energy while reinforcing the stature of tidal power as a competitive future energy source.”