Minesto will concentrate all deployments of its Dragon Class marine energy converters this year at the established and grid-connected site at Vestmannasund in the Faroe Islands, rather than split across three sites in the Faroes, France and Wales.
The Swedish developer said this plan will help mitigate supply chain delays and allow it to take advantage of synergies and new opportunities for more cost-effective operations, electricity production under an existing power purchase agreement, and a quicker route to commercial roll out.
Minesto’s first D4 unit will go straight into continuous grid-connected operation in Vestmannasund during the first half of 2022 as originally intended.
However, Minesto has decided to install a second 100kW D4 and the larger 1.2MW D12 units in Vestmannasund during 2022, rather than deploying them for demonstration testing in France and Wales, as originally planned.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic there have been uncertainties and delivery challenges which are more efficiently managed by concentrating operations to one geographical site,” the company said.
The new project plan allows for back-to-back commissioning and concurrent operations of the two D4 units and the following D12 utility-scale unit.
This will enable Minesto to generate electricity production data from long-term, grid-connected operations for use in all ongoing collaborative projects.
Minesto chief executive Martin Edlund said: “We are confident that this restructuring of our ongoing projects is the best way forward.
“This is the most value-creating use of investments, both private and public, in our EU-funded collaborations with the Welsh European Funding Office and the Interreg Tidal Stream Industry Energiser Project.
“The funding agreements for these projects remain the same, and so does our commitment to develop an 80MW commercial array off North Wales.
“Streamlining our installations to one location brings significant synergies in terms of risk reduction, logistics and costs.
“It is the fastest approach to demonstrate the upgraded powerplant performance, to generate revenues and to enable large-scale buildout of arrays in multiple locations.”
He added that the company’s collaboration with SEV continues, as does Minesto’s collaboration with its French partners with focus on deliverables within the Tiger project.
In Wales, the work now focuses on assembly and in-factory testing of the commercial scale 1.2MW D12 unit and key supporting systems such as bottom joint and installation frames.
Production data from this system will support the ongoing site development work towards the build-out of an 80MW array in Holyhead Deep.