Sustainable Marine is to deliver Atlantic Canada’s first instream tidal energy in early 2022.
The marine energy outfit has now constructed an onshore electrical substation in Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy.
Sustainable Marine’s PLAT-I tidal energy platform is also installed and due to be grid-connected and generating energy by early 2022.
Sustainable Marinchief executive Jason Hayman said: “We are on target to connect the platform to the substation in the first quarter of next year.
“This will be a significant milestone for marine energy in Nova Scotia as it will be the first floating tidal platform to connect directly into the power grid.”
This news comes as Sustainable Marine ramps up capacity in the province, following a multi-million-dollar investment in the most advanced marine operations support vessel of its kind on the East Coast of Canada, the Tidal Pioneer.
Further investment in an environmental monitoring programme will deliver a “comprehensive and robust analysis” of the technology’s impact on marine life, understood at this stage to be negligible by the international scientific community.
Sustainable Marine’s PLAT-I floating tidal platform has been specially designed, with significant contributions from the local Nova Scotia supply chain alongside German turbine manufacturer SCHOTTEL, to operate within the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Passage, which experiences some of the fastest flowing tides on earth.
The platform, which is Currently stationed at Grand Passage, is being used to deliver a rigorous environmental monitoring programme, underway since 2018.
This programme is testing underwater cameras, hydrophones, echosounders and tracking devices to record marine life interactions in the high-flow environment.
Sustainable Marine is also collaborating with the Ocean Tracking Network, a global aquatic research, data management and partnership organisation based at Dalhousie University, and has installed two acoustic receivers on the platform to detect tagged fish.
Data collected will help inform understanding of the movement of aquatic species around the system.
In addition to this comprehensive environmental monitoring effort, Sustainable Marine has engaged with Mi’kmaq community leadership and organisations.
The team is learning about the importance of observing traditional Mi’kmaq environmental stewardship, an “essential shared principle to assist coastal and remote communities in their mission to achieve net zero”.