Dutch tide turns in the Westerschelde

The C-Energy consortium consists of ten partners and a number of subcontractors, with Econcern holding the core rotor technology. With a swept area of 25m², the rotor is at a 50% scale (1:2) of the full size commercial rotor. The demonstrator is designed to generate up to 30 kW in currents up to 2 m/s.

This demonstration project has three main objectives:
– To demonstrate the economic viability of energy generation from tidal flows.
– To gain experience with all stages of development, manufacturing, installation and maintenance of a near shore device.
– To monitor and analyse the operational behaviour and the performance of the system in real life conditions.

Over the past ten years, the technology has been tested extensively in different countries both in tanks and in open waters at up to a scale of 1:5. The results gave confidence to scale up towards a nearshore system utilizing existing infrastructure. An offshore system is under development in combination with wind turbines and for offshore platforms. Preparing for commercial installation, Econcern has already been pre-qualified for the Crown Estate Pentland Firth tender to develop up to 10 MW of ocean energy before 2020.

The Zeeland C-Energy partners, Econcern, the EU and SenterNovem, have committed some €1.4m towards the project. For most of these parties, tapping into new market opportunities is one of the main reasons to participate in the project. This will be the first long term test in the Netherlands. ‘Financing this innovative, sustainable energy technology may be risky, said Peter Scheijgrond, senior consultant with Ecofys and project leader of C-Energy, ‘but there is a huge economic potential in the ocean energy sector. Cooperation between key players and the support from the government are crucial for realising this potential.’