Lessons Learned from a Pilot Tidal Energy Plant

Between 2008-2010 Ecofys realized a unique tidal stream pilot project in the Southwest of The Netherlands. The project, dubbed C-Energy, was the result of collaboration between 10 organizations including contractors, NGOs, public authorities and research institutes such as Deltares. Below the project manager for the C-Energy project, Peter Scheijgrond, shares his lessons learned.

Project plan and vision

The project plan must start with a clear vision of why you are taking the next step in scaling up your technology and at what cost. There has to be a balance between the learning objectives and the investment required for the project. In our case, we wanted to focus on the performance of the core technology: the rotor and drive train. All other parts were secondary and had to be designed to maximize the learning potential from the core technology. That also meant we would not yet focus on the mounting and foundation of the system for a commercial application. Too o en in the past, developers have taken too big steps in order to demonstrate their technology at say scale, going to extreme locations and eventually learning more about o shore installation than about the actual performance of their core technology.

Choice of consortium
Open Innovation versus condentiality Open Innovation is the key word here. When you want to learn from each other with a limited budget and uncertain outcome, you need other organizations to bring in the best available expertise for the tasks at hand. However, make sure that critical components and the core technology stay fully within your own control. Involve others for the more generic solutions and make sure you are involved in all agreements and expectations between partners in the project. If there are any parts that need IP (intellectual property) protection and you have not yet done this, make sure you start the IP process before you start talking to partners, because in Open Innovation you need to feel free to talk about all the details of your technology from an early stage in the project. Condentiality hinders progress in getting the consortium together.

Small or large-scale companies?

During the consortium-forming process, we learnt that it was easier to make progress with smaller (SME) companies rather than the larger corporations.

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Considerations for Application

Lessons Learned
Although the latter may be more interesting from a strategic and investment point of view, they were also more di cult to approach and to agree with on the terms of participation. At this stage the main objective was to demonstrate the technology, so we needed to move with exible organizations, short communication lines and balanced interests.

Local or (inter)national?
From an EU funding point of view and from a market potential point of view, it would appear that an international consortium is the way to go. However, it slows down team communication despite all modern ICT tools available and it adds to the project management cost. A strong local consortium has a powerful network in the region of the project, which will come in useful during the various stages of the project. A local consortium creates goodwill and a sense of involvement of the community, at local governmental level and with the regulators. The strong local content was also key to successfully securing funding from the European Fund for Region Development (EFRO).

Utility involvement
Ideally, a large utility would have been part of the consortium, because it would have added prestige to the project. For various reasons, mostly related to conicts of interest, we did not succeed in convincing a large utility to participate in the project. Towards the commissioning phase of the project, we received e cient support from a large Dutch utility in connecting the system to the grid and in making purchasing agreements and kWh registration. Going through the complete process of grid connection and power purchasing agreements was a good learning process.

Agreements & expectations

Since ocean energy is such a new and fascinating area of development, many companies and NGOs new to the business are willing to participate in the project without claiming ownership of IP or results, and even to invest partly in the project. They will participate because they will learn in the project; it is good for their project portfolio and it has tangible marketing and PR value. The bottom line is that the companies involved expect to enter a new market or be involved in spino s that will repay their investment. When drawing up the agreements, it is wise to clearly state each organizations reasons for participation and to dene who is entitled to what part of the IP, know-how and results. The involvement of a legal person used to dra ing collaboration agreements is paramount in this process.

Finance
It is very di cult to make an accurate budget in the early phases of the project, when the scope is not yet fully dened. Make a reasonable estimate and double it you may come closer to the actual cost of the project.
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Pilot installation of the Wave Rotor in the Western Scheldt.

Look at subsidies and how you can combine public funding (e.g. local innovation grants with EU funding, with special grants for local SMEs or provincial support, awards or sponsorship from utilities or other public bodies). Co-nancing comes from the parties involved in the project. The party which claims most results from the project should make the largest investment. In our case we received 25% from an innovation grant and 40% from an EU programme. We invested 20% ourselves, and 10% came from industrial parties and 5% from public organizations.

Site selection
We drew up a list of criteria for the ideal testing site for our next phase in real waters: Minimum operational currents of 1.5 m/s, maximum 2.5 m/s Minimum 10m depth to avoid seabed turbulence e ects Within 2-3 hrs drive of the development teams main o ce Not easily accessible for 3rd parties / public

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Considerations for Application Lessons Learned

Easily accessible with cranes to avoid o shore installation costs Grid connection nearby Possibility to have high speed internet connection for fast data transfer No conict of water use (e.g. nature reserve, shipping, or recreation etc)

We found most of these criteria at a location in Zeeland, which was already under consideration as a tidal test site by the local municipality. It was a pier owned by a renery.

Permits
Getting permits is a slow process with many stakeholders, mainly authorities. For our trial we needed to submit ve permit applications. In this project the local municipality o ered to prepare and submit all permits, since they had an interest in the successful implementation of the project. This proved to be a very good solution, which saved a lot of time for the development team. The local municipality had the right network with the issuing bodies, which greatly helped to accelerate the process.

Design & engineering

The most important lesson here was: start as soon as possible with a detailed loading analysis of the system. It will determine all other engineering tasks and is the main driver for the overall cost of the support construction. Keep a logbook for each design decision, to avoid reiteration in the development team.

Realization
Some important lessons in the realization phase were: Make sure you have an adequate car insurance for all activities Prepare a detailed Health & Safety document, stating working protocols and what to do in case of an emergency Plan su cient meetings with both the consortium and with other stakeholders to inform everybody about the realization. Include relevant management, communication, and Health & Safety sta . Keep a detailed record of all changes in the scope of supply with contractors. This will help during the nal negotiations Simulate (changes in) the installation process, preferably in a virtual 3D environment. Does everything still t together when you change the order of installation? Test t all critical ttings before nal assembly on site Calibrate all sensors before site installation and carry out a signal test immediately a er installation
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Record everything with a video camera for promotional purposes In case of any defects, do not delay in asking the supplier to solve the problem. Some warranties on installed product lapse a er 6 months.

Monitoring and scaling up

The project has been running now for over 12 months, and is delivering energy to the grid. We are collecting a lot of performance data. The system performs according to our model predictions and is a valuable stepping stone for our next project. The design tools we have developed have been validated by the data from the prototype, which allows us to condently design systems for even higher ow velocities. Also in terms of publicity the project has gained a lot of attention both nationally and internationally, giving us a more solid base for attracting future investments. Finally, lobbying should not be forgotten lobbying for better support mechanisms to fund these projects now and in the future. A demonstrably working project helps you to lobby convincingly for adequate nancing.

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