Top interviews of 2017

Read Tidal Energy Today’s most interesting interviews with the representatives of tidal and wave energy industry conducted throughout 2017.


Power vessel navigates to wave energy cost-effectiveness

Robert Stoddard, CEO of GWave (Photo: GWave)

 
Flying deliberately under the media radar over the past decade, and in the meantime developing a giant 9MW wave energy device, American wave energy company GWave lifted the lid on its well-kept secret early in 2017 by announcing the plans to deploy a full-scale device at the Wave Hub test center in Cornwall, UK.

Tidal Energy Today has in that regard talked to GWave’s Chief Executive Officer, Robert Stoddard, to learn more about this ‘dark horse’ of wave energy generation whose nameplate capacity of 9MW is larger than that of the biggest offshore wind turbine currently available on the market.

Atir’s opposing blades direct to turn the tides

Atir floating tidal platform deployed for trials in Galicia (Photo: Magallanes Renovables)

 
Alejandro Marques de Magallanes, General Director of the Spanish tidal energy developer Magallanes Renovables, gave us an update on the most recent activities related to the development of the floating tidal energy platform named Atir.

The platform boasts tidal turbine blades that span for 19 meters in diameter and bring the platform’s power generating capacity to 2MW. It was launched early in 2017 and has since underwent trials in Galicia in Spain.

Laminaria gears up to take wave sector by storm

Chief Executive of the Belgian wave energy company Laminaria, Steven Nauwelaerts, shared with us the latest information on the current status of the company’s wave energy device device back in February 2017. Nauwelaerts talked about the device’s ‘unique selling point’ – that of integrated energy regulation.

What this means is that the device can adapt to waves with significant difference in height, such as those found in stormy conditions, while maintaining both the steady energy production and the safety of the entire system.

Device mimicking coral reef raises waves off Spain

Arrecife Energy’s scaled prototype (Photo: Arrecife Energy Systems)

 
Bilbao-based wave energy company Arrecife Energy Systems is making progress on the development of its wave energy system whose design was inspired by the coral reefs and their efficiency in absorbing the energy of the waves.

Tidal Energy Today talked to Arrecife Enegy’s Chief Operating Officer, Oscar Villanueva Cañizares, to get more details behind the working principles of the device, and to check how Arrecife Energy Systems plans to proceed with the development of this technology.

Government ambition underpins commercial success of marine energy

Artist’s impression – Swansea Bay tidal lagoon (Image: Tidal Lagoon Power)

 
Maximizing the commercial success of marine energy will be based on the choices that governments make and their ambition to exploit this new and predictable source of energy, said Ton Fijen, Technical Director at Tidal Lagoon Power, regarding the conditions for commercial success of marine renewable energy.

Fijen talked about the financing of tidal lagoons and other factors affecting the development of tidal energy projects, with a special focus on Tidal Lagoon Power’s Swansea Bay tidal lagoon proposal – often called the ‘pathfinder’ project for tidal lagoon industry in the UK.

Tidal Energy Today