Marine's bright future

By Dr John Huckerby
Chief Executive
Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association (AWATEA)

In April of this year the Greater Wellington Regional Council announced the award of a non-notified consent to Neptune Power for the deployment of a 1MW prototype tidal current turbine south of the Wellington coast. 

Neptune Power is planning to deploy a UK-developed twin-turbine shrouded device and the consent gives them 10 years to trial the device. Neptune has indicated that it expects to have it deployed late in 2009.

In May, Crest Energy submitted resource consents applications for a tidal current project in Kaipara Harbour, which has been granted. The project includes a staged development approach and the use of an OpenHydro turbine. The hearings lasted for five days and included a site visit by the hearing commissioners.

On the day of that visit to the Kaipara Harbour, the Minister of Energy was opening the second annual conference of the Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association, where he announced the award of funds from the first round of the Marine Energy Deployment Fund (MEDF). The fund, set up as part of the Energy Strategy and administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), is a capital grant programme, offering up to $2 million per annum over the next four years for the deployment of prototype marine energy devices. Crest Energy was the sole recipient of $1.85 million to assist in the deployment of the first three of their proposed 200 marine devices.

Through the government’s R&D funding agency, the Wave Energy Technology – New Zealand (WET-NZ) R&D consortium project will receive six further years of funding to continue development of its wave energy converter. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) also secured funding for a three-year project to optimise tidal and ocean current systems, and additional funding for a three-year project to review extreme waves and storm surges. Although this is really a natural hazards project, there will be applicability to wave energy projects,

particularly with respect to wave device survival.

Wellington was host city of the United Nation’s ‘World Environment Day’ this year, and  WET-NZ used the opportunity to deploy its 2KW experimental wave energy converter in Wellington Harbour. The converter is the result of four years’ research by a consortium including Industrial Research, NIWA and Power Projects. The converter has been deployed offshore a number of times over the last year, but was relocated to Wellington for some specific mooring experiments.

New Zealand has formally joined the International Energy Agency’s Ocean Energy Systems (IEA:OES) implementing agreement. Since set up in 2001, the IEA:OES executive has done much to disseminate information about marine energy and has work programmes reviewing grid connections of marine energy converters and environmental issues. It also contributed to the first meeting of a new international technical committee, initiated in 2007 to establish technical standards for marine energy converters including resource characterisation and resource assessment.

An understanding of the wave and tidal resources is critical to any future development and Power Projects and Metocean Solutions have just finished a wave and tidal energy resource study for the Electricity Commission, EECA and Greater Wellington Regional Council. New maps of the national and regional wave and tidal resources have been produced and some specific sites assessed. The study will be published later this year.

The year was also a milestone for the first pre-commercial demonstration of a tidal current device, a 1.2MW SeaGen tidal turbine, that is producing its first electricity into the Northern Ireland transmission grid.

With these developments here and overseas, 2008 has been a big leap for marine energy industry.