Preparatory work continues for Southeast Asia’s first tidal power plant, to be deployed on the remote off-grid island of Capul, Northern Samar, Philippines, with EPC kick-off potentially in September 2024 and a target operation date of late 2025. The 1MW installation will use Inyanga Marine Energy Group’s HydroWing tidal stream technology.
Energies PH, Inc, through its affiliate San Bernardino Ocean Power Corporation, has contracted with Inyanga Marine Energy Group to build the new power plant, following a competitive tender process.
Capul is situated on the San Bernadino Strait, which enjoys powerful currents flowing from the Samar Sea and the Philippine Sea and is well-known for the strength of its tidal flows.
The first stage of the project consists of a tidal power plant to be connected to Capul’s microgrid network coupled with PV and energy storage, delivering a reliable, sustainable, and cost-competitive alternative to fossil-based power generation. The island of Capul currently relies for its power on an ageing 750 kW diesel genset.
“Our vision is to replicate this in several off-grid sites all over the country to provide electricity in the hinterlands,” says Antonio Ver, co-chairman and CEO of Energies PH. “We see the initial project… as a catapult to achieving our goal of helping create sustainable communities across the Philippines. The electric power that reaches families in remote areas enables them to have better access to education, health services as well as livelihood opportunities.”
“Tidal stream energy is the most predictable and reliable form of renewable energy”, says Richard Parkinson, CEO of Inyanga Marine Energy Group. “Our HydroWing technology is at the cutting edge of innovation and provides a cost-effective solution to harvesting the power of the ocean’s tides.”
Jean-Christophe Allo, Commercial Manager at Inyanga adds: “As the project incorporates an onshore storage facility, the tidal turbines will provide continuous 24/7 power supply. Right now, Capul has only 8 to 16 hours of power per day, with several blackouts.”
Other tidal power generation sites planned for subsequent deployment by San Bernardino Ocean Power Corporation are on San Antonio Island, also in Northern Samar, and Calintaan Island in Matnog, Sorsogon.
Meanwhile, a 10MW HydroWing tidal stream power plant – launching the technology at “utility-scale” – is planned for deployment in Wales in 2027, following success in the UK government’s latest Contracts for Difference round. It will be located at the Morlais tidal energy site in Anglesey, and an MoU has recently been signed to that effect. Morlais rents berths to turbine developers and is managed by the social enterprise Menter Môn. A research project in partnership with Bangor University to assess the velocity of local tide currents has proved encouraging.
“Commercialisation of the tidal energy sector has so far been held back by high operations and maintenance costs. Our next-generation technology meets that challenge head-on,” argues Richard Parkinson.
HydroWing is designed to be a cost-effective and scalable concept for tidal stream power generation. A supporting structure sits on the seabed, under its own weight. The ‘wings’, which hold the turbines, are then lowered into position on this structure. This makes HydroWing “very straightforward to deploy”, according to its developers. The turbines are bi-directional, so generate power as the tide comes in and as it goes out.
The HydroWing technology to be used for the Morlais project will incorporate “next-generation Tocardo T-3 turbines”, says Richard Parkinson.
“We have been working on the development of a passive pitch mechanism, which integrates with the Tocardo bi-blade system, allowing the blade dimensions to be increased, while shedding pitch at higher loads. This is similar to an active pitching mechanism but without compromising the reliability for which the Tocardo turbines are well known. This increases the yield by 50-60% and makes projects in lower flow locations more feasible and investible.
“HydroWing and QED Naval joined forces in 2020 to work together on Tocardo because we could see the huge potential of this turbine technology. The Tocardo T-3 turbine design builds on insights from the 1.25 MW tidal energy demonstration array in Eastern Scheldt.
“The HydroWing team have scrutinised every aspect of our technology to ensure we have optimised each area in terms of cost reduction and improving efficiency so as to be able to deliver a truly commercially viable project at Morlais.”
This article first appeared in Modern Power Systems magazine.
