Minesto plans Taiwan as first ocean current power producer

Minesto, which is currently working to install its Deep Green tidal technology off Keelung Island in Taiwan as part of a demonstration project, has informed that it is looking to deploy Deep Green at a site in the Kuroshio current, which would lead to world’s first commercial electricity production from ocean currents.

Deep Green technology. Photo: Minesto/ archive

 
The company stated that it had intensified activities in Taiwan to establish the company’s Deep Green technology in the Asian market. Local staff have been recruited to a newly established subsidiary to run the development of a tidal stream site in Keelung together with the National Taiwan Ocean University. Minesto has also appointed a Taiwanese site developer as project manager to the newly established subsidiary Minesto Taiwan.

“We strengthen the business development organisation and intensify our operations in Taiwan. The installation project to demonstrate the Deep Green technology in tidal streams at Keelung Island is already running and we aim to complete this in 2018. We have also identified and analysed a site in the Kuroshio current. A natural next step is to install our devices there, which could see the world’s first electricity generated from ocean currents,” said Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto.

Minesto announced its plans for commercial-scale installation of Deep Green technology in Taiwan in November 2016, when the company signed a collaboration agreement with the Research Center for Ocean Energy and Strategies (RCOES) at National Taiwan Ocean University. The first phase of the collaboration covers the installation of a quarter scale Deep Green power plant at the existing RCOES test site in Keelung, while the second phase involves developing potential sites for commercial-scale installation. Upon signing the agreement, Minesto said that some potential sites had been already identified.

According to the company, the establishment in Taiwan also consolidates a commercial expansion roll-out throughout Asia, by both small-scale autonomously operated Deep Green systems and utility-scale arrays in ocean currents.

“We intend to expand the Deep Green product range with a smaller scale system, giving us an additional commercial product to cost-effectively open new markets and business opportunities, not least those in Asia. In Southeast Asia alone, 65 million people live without electricity and many millions more live with unreliable supply, making them dependent on expensive diesel-generated electricity. Marine energy has the potential to meet a substantial share of the need for reliable and clean electricity supply in this part of the world,” Edlund said.