Industry Insight
Tidal projects make headway in Australia and New Zealand
14 September 2011
Harnessing energy from Australia's famous waves is already being investigated, with most studies taking place along the country’s prime southern and western coastlines. But what of tidal? With a new clean energy bill and an impressive funding structure in the works, tidal projects are making newfound progress in Australia and New Zealand.
By Gail Rajgor
To date, just 0.15MW of tidal power is installed in Australia, at Atlantis Resources’ San Remo testing facility. The country is, says domestic firm Tenax Energy, lagging far behind its international counterparts, like the UK, US and Canada. That could soon change.
“The time is right for tidal energy,” says a Tenax company statement. “Demand for energy in Australia is projected to increase by 50 per cent by 2020. If Australia is to meet the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target of 20 per cent renewable energy supply by 2020, additional technologies and renewable sources will be required. Australia can’t afford to miss this opportunity.”
Parliamentary support
The federal government agrees and this week kicked off to parliament a raft of clean energy and climate change bills, starting with the Clean Energy Bill on September 13th. If passed by parliament, it will usher in a new carbon tax, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), and a $10bn Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) – all part of the federal government’s Clean Energy Future package.
Significantly, the CEFC will use carbon price revenue to leverage private sector investment in early stage clean energy technology, like tidal power. As Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Parliament this week: “All up, the carbon price will support $100 billion worth of investment in renewables in the next forty years.”
The initiative will “turbo charge the clean energy sector,” says Kane Thornton, Director of Strategy for the Clean Energy Council (CEC). Meanwhile, the launch of ARENA should “help take cutting-edge technologies out of the lab and into the electricity grid.”
Projects on the horizon
Overall, the investment climate for renewables, including tidal, is set to improve significantly and tidal resources are being investigated, mostly along Australia’s northern coastline.
Indeed, since the federal government announced its Clean Energy Future programme, a 48MW tidal project originally proposed eight years ago for the north west of Western Australia (WA) is now back on the agenda by Derby Hydro Power, while a number of other projects are also the horizon. These include three large-scale (24-300MW) tidal stream proposals by Tenax to be located at Clarence Strait, near Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT), Port Phillip Heads (Victoria), and Banks Strait (Tasmania).
The company is currently undertaking environmental impact assessments for the projects. The 200MW A$500m (£300m) NT project will use 1MW turbines, while the Port Phillip Heads Tidal Energy Project, if approved, will comprise up to 45 turbines, says Tenax.
Meantime, BioPower Systems is another Australian firm hoping the domestic industry takes off. It’s behind the Biostream tidal turbine, a unit it expects to be deployed for utility-scale power production in future. A pilot installation is located at Flinders Island, Tasmania. [The company is also developing tech for the wave energy sector, with its Biowave device now at pilot demonstration off the coast of Victoria, Australia.]
Grid-ready
But, as the company’s CEO, Dr Timothy Finnigan, points out, to avoid causing significant disruption the electricity generated by tidal turbines must be grid-ready. As in the wind energy sector, this makes power conversion technologies a critical component to the tidal industry’s future.
“Ocean energy devices typically oscillate slowly in response to huge forces, and this presents a significant challenge in terms of harnessing the energy to produce electricity,” he says. To overcome this obstacle, the company has been working on a suitable system since 2008, thanks in part to funding from the Australian commonwealth government’s Renewable Energy Development Initiative.
Last month, testing of the system – the O-Drive power conversion module – was completed, “successfully delivering stable power to the grid over extended periods with a high level of efficiency.”
Developed in collaboration with Bosch Rexroth, CNC Design and Siemens, the self-contained 250kW module plugs into turbines like Biostream. It combines a hydraulic circuit, an electric generator, and complex control algorithms to convert the large forces, and slow motions, inherent to ocean waves and tides into a steady flow of electricity.
“We are pleased with the efficiency of this system, and with the quality of power that is produced,” says Finnigan. “The O-Drive not only gears up the motion, but also rectifies it and smoothes it, so that we can produce grid-ready electricity using a standard electric generator.”
O-Drive is also designed to be detached from a moored ocean energy system, enabling easy and cost-effective maintenance. Plus, as it also produces high-voltage power (keeping potential transmission losses to a minimum) it allows systems to be installed at substantial distances from shore.
“The system is self-regulating in variable wave or tidal conditions, such that power to the grid is stable and of utility-grade quality,” says the firm, noting it is also suitable for use with offshore wind turbines.
Across the water
Meantime, Australia’s neighbour, New Zealand (NZ), is set to get its first tidal project: Crest Energy’s $600m Kaipara Harbour project at off Northland. The company has planning permission for the staged installation of up to 200 tidal turbine power generators, with each unit up to 1.2MW in capacity. It is now seeking construction finance, while Ireland’s OpenHydro, which is making huge progress already with EDF in Northern France, is being touted as a possible technology partner for the project.
“This is the first large-scale commercial approval for tidal power generation and it has the potential to play a significant role in the development of a new source of renewable energy in New Zealand,” says Kate Wilkinson, NZ’s Minister of Conservation.
The consent process took four years, with potential environmental impacts addressed in the Environment Court. Other companies developing or promoting tidal and wave projects in New Zealand include Tidal Power New Zealand, Tidal Flow Seamills and Tangaroa.
Good times ahead?
As more tidal projects get the green light from government, the environment courts and the decision-making stakeholders, Australia and New Zealand will emerge as one, if not the, leading regional tidal market in the Pacific Rim. The sooner projects go online, become grid connected and function over reliable smart grids, the sooner other Pacific Rim countries will work to serve this industry, creating economies of scale through competitive supply chains.
But as in the more mature tidal markets of the US and the UK, government support in Australia and New Zealand will be vital from the beginning to attract a greater number of viable projects for investors and utilities.
