Black Rock Tidal Power (BRTP) has reached financial close on the 2.5MW Triton tidal project in Canada.
German tidal turbine manufacturer Schottel Hydro, which owns BRTP, announced at today’s Ocean Energy Europe conference in Dublin it has bagged C$10.5m in equity cash and a further C$4.5m in debt finance.
The private equity includes investments from the shareholders of the Schottel Group, the Singapore-based clean tech investor Envirotek and Inerjys Ventures, a Canadian clean energy investment outfit.
BRTP will now establish a SPV company to run the project over its 15-year lifespan, once commissioned.
The Triton floating platform will carry a number of Schottel turbines and is to be installed in the autumn of 2016 at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) in Canada.
BRTP has been awarded the developmental tidal feed-in tariff (FIT) and a power purchase agreement with Nova Scotia Power. The electricity generated will be fed into the North American power supply system.
“The successful closing of the equity finance in our project sets the path for further Triton projects in the Bay of Fundy and globally,” said Sue Molloy, BRTP’s General Manager.
“This is good news for the tidal industry in Nova Scotia and an important step towards proving the commercial viability of our technology and of tidal energy in general.
“The province of Nova Scotia has shown great commitment to the tidal industry by setting up Force and by establishing the developmental FIT.”
Schottel Managing Director Niels Lange said the project is the first of its type to be commercially financed.
“From the very beginning BRTP and Schottel had the ambition to offer tidal energy technology that allows for commercial tidal energy projects already at an early stage of this industry,” he said.
“We are proud that we have raised 70% private equity investment for this project, which we consider to be the first project in the tidal industry at this scale financed under purely commercial terms.”
Image: Triton platform (Black Rock Tidal Power)
