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Bluewater develops cost-effective tidal energy converter
“BLUETEC”
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HOOFDDORP, Netherlands
Bluewater Energy Services B.V.
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Tidal power is the new, green, predictable source of
electricity. It offers low risk and zero emission electricity generation.
While most developers concentrate on the development of turbines, leading
Dutch offshore energy company Bluewater Energy Services BV has
developed an innovative solution to economically install and maintain
these turbines in the ocean. This results in a large reduction of the
highest cost items: offshore installation and
maintenance, bringing down the total costs of tidal power significantly.
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Installation, operation and maintenance of a tidal power
generation farm absorb most of the total costs of a tidal farm. Not the
cost of failed components, but the cost of entire marine operations to
diagnose and replace these parts under water can be extremely high. To
counter this, Bluewater has designed a floating platform ‘Bluetec’ that
provides easy access from the water surface, can hold multiple tidal
turbines and is moored with anchor lines to the sea floor.
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The Bluetec platform is a unified floating support structure
which can hold any type of turbines in any waterdepth. It offers
waterproof housing for vulnerable systems above the waterline unique in
the tidal industry. Power cables are connected dry rather than under
water, reducing risks and costs significantly. The Bluetec structure is
much lighter than the gravity based designs, requiring less tonnage steel
per MW. The device itself is floating and therefore installation can be
executed with widely available vessels, without the need for expensive
floating cranes or jack-ups.
Bluetec can hold multiple tidal turbines, resulting in less
risk and high power reliability. This is another unique success factor:
instead of forcing turbines to scale up to the enormous sizes that are
now on the drawing boards, Bluetec works with today’s turbine technology.
By bundling smaller turbines, each Bluetec unit reaches 1 MW, powering
1000 households. Even if one of the turbines would malfunction, the
others keep operating and producing.
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Bluetec unified
floating support structure,
device shown with
horizontal axis turbines.
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Bluetec unified
floating support structure,
shown with vertical
axis turbines.
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Bluetec unified
floating support structure
Tidal Farm
arrangement
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The key to low cost is easy access and easy handling. “The
Bluetec design is unique because of its low installation, operation and
maintenance costs”, says Allard van Hoeken,Manager New Energy at Bluewater. “Unlike the designs with turbines
located at the seabed, Bluetec offers a significant advantage by
providing easy access to all the critical equipments which are located
above the waterline. This means that there is no need for divers,
submarine robots nor wet connectors, which results in safe and cost
effective inspection, maintenance and repair activities.’’
The Bluetec concept lends itself very well for further cost
reductions during scaling up. It can serve both small (1-5 MW) and
large (80 – 120 MW) farms economically.
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Bluewater is a maritime service provider with over 30 years
of experience in the offshore oil and gas sector, providing reliable
floating solutions. These systems are installed, operated and maintained
in the oceans. This experience is key for developing reliable tidal
energy solution. During every step in our design process, we anticipate
how to maintain our systems at sea, in the most cost-effective way.
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