Irish developer DP Energy is to work with Chubu Electrical Power and international shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) to develop the first phase of a tidal energy project in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The joint development agreement (JDA) covers the Uisce Tapa project located at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) site.
The area is home to some of the highest tides in the world, with tidal range in excess of 13 metres and currents that exceed 10 knots (five metres a second), DP Energy said.
The project holds a 15-year power purchase agreement of C$530/MWh awarded under Nova Scotia’s Marine Renewable Energy Act and is the recipient of a C$29.75m (€20m) grant from Natural Resources Canada under their Emerging Renewables Power Program.
The project is already well advanced, with testing underway for the environmental monitoring platform being developed together with the Offshore Energy Research Association under its Pathway Program.
Uisce Tapa will utilise the 1.5MW Andritz turbine technology that has successfully operated for many years in the MeyGen project in Scotland.
After completion of the first phase, DP Energy plans to expand the generation capacity to 9MW in the second phase before the technology moves to being fully commercially ready’.
The company said the signing of the JDA marks a significant milestone in its ocean energy aspirations.
DP Energy chief executive Simon De Pietro (pictured) said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Chubu and K Line on developing an exciting project in one of the most challenging marine environments in the world, and believe our combined skillsets, together with the proven Andritz technology, will enable us to meet that challenge and deliver what will be a ground breaking project for the sector.
“Whilst our first Ocean Energy project, Uisce Tapa, is modest in scale we anticipate it will fill the essential step from technology demonstration to early array demonstration that will lead to the development of further tidal energy projects at utility scale in Canada and other markets, and provide a stepping stone to DP Energy’s plans for wave energy off the West Coast here in Ireland.”
Cork-headquartered DP Energy has a global portfolio of over 5GW under development across onshore wind, solar, and offshore wind technologies in Australia, Canada, the UK as well as in Ireland.