Norwegians stand behind Swedish tidal kite come rain or shine

Norwegian-based meteorological data systems provider Automasjon & Data (A+D) has secured a contract to supply a metocean instrumentation system for Minesto’s tidal energy installation in Wales.

The contract will see A+D build, supply and install the metocean instrumentation system for the Holyhead Deep tidal energy site.

The agreement also includes installation and support during the completion of the micro grid system (MGS) set-up in Glasgow.

The metocean instrumentation system consists of a data acquisition system onboard the MGS buoy and a number of sensors installed around the buoy to measure meteorological and oceanographic parameters.

A+D added that a sophisticated current profiler instrument will also be installed below the buoy to measure detailed current data in the area.

The data from the system will provide daily operational weather information for the operation of the Holyhead Deep project over the entire lifespan of the installation, according to A+D.

It will also collect the data in a database for long-term statistical purposes, and will be used in future analysis for the installed assets, A+D added.

Jon Silgjerd, Director of Business Development for A+D, said: “We have in the past supplied similar systems to a number of offshore wind farms in UK and German waters, but this is the first contract into the tidal energy market, which we hope will develop rapidly in the years to come. This particular project is a very innovative concept with a huge potential, and we are very proud to be selected as a partner in this development.”

Developing Holyhead Deep into a commercial tidal energy array will be done in phases starting with the 500kW Deep Green tidal energy demonstrator planned for commissioning in 2018.

Following deployment and testing of the first installed power plant, more Deep Green devices are expected to be installed, gradually expanding the site into a 10MW tidal energy array. Early in 2017, Minesto unveiled plans to potentially expand the site to 80MW.