Siemens increases stake in ocean power specialist Marine Current Turbines to 45%
04 November 2011
Siemens is increasing its stake in Britain’s Marine Current Turbines Ltd. (MCT), a maker of horizontal-axis marine current turbines, to 45%. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Siemens had acquired a minor stake in MCT in February 2010, thereby entering the marine tidal current sector.
With this increase in its stake, Siemens is strengthening its activities in ocean power generation. We will actively shape the commercialization process of innovative marine current power plants.
—Michael Axmann, CFO of the newly founded Solar & Hydro Division within Siemens’ Energy Sector
Effective 1 October 2011, Siemens realigned its renewables business into two independent units. The former Renewable Energy Division was split into two new divisions: Wind Power and Solar & Hydro.
Marine current turbines generate electricity by utilizing tidal current flows. The SeaGen turbine is fixed on a structure and is driven by the flow of the tides, with a key advantage that the generated power is precisely predictable in the tidal cycle. This technology is effectively similar to a wind turbine, with the rotor blades driven not by wind power but by tidal currents. Water has an energy density more than 800 times that of wind. Twin rotors rotate with the movement of the tidal flow and the blades pitch through 180 degrees to optimally track tidal current direction and speed.
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| A commercial marine current turbine consists of two rotors, which are fixed on a structure within the sea current. The SeaGen turbine can be lifted to the surface for maintenance. The twin rotors rotate with the movement of the tidal flow and the blades pitch through 180 degrees to optimally track tidal current. Source: Marine Current Turbines. Click to enlarge. |
Ocean power is emerging with strong growth rates driven by global CO2 reduction commitments, said Siemens, with double-digit growth rates for the ocean power business anticipated through 2020. Based on further estimates, the global potential for power generation using tidal power plants is 800 terawatt-hours (TWh) per annum—equivalent to 25% above the total power demand in Germany and between 3-4% of power consumption worldwide.
MCT plans to present two project investment prospectuses to the market in November for the 8MW Kyle Rhea project in Scotland and the 10MW Anglesey Skerries project in Wales. For both projects, applications for lease from The Crown Estate have already been approved. The UK Government’s ROC (Renewable Obligation Certificate) Banding announcement on 20 October recommends the support of tidal power projects with 5 ROCs per MWh.
In addition, MCT has an approval for a lease from The Crown Estate to deploy a 100MW tidal farm off Brough Ness on the southernmost tip of the Orkney Islands in Scotland.
MCT has already successfully implemented its first commercial-scale demonstrator project SeaGen in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Since November 2008, two axial turbines with a combined capacity of 1.2 MW have been feeding power into the grid to supply about 1500 homes. SeaGen has fed more than 2.7 GWh of electricity into the grid. This project has thus produced the largest amount of electricity in the whole marine current power sector.
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Posted by: Godwin Alexe | 04 November 2011 at 11:09 AM
Siemens is a wealthy company and can afford this. But of course electro-mechanical intrusions into our oceans are a clunky way to generate energy - when energy is all around us in great abundance.
The lesson we are being taught is there are vastly more efficient ways to produce energy, communicate, travel and socialize - than we have been led to believe. We are in the process of sweeping away the old fiefdoms that fatted themselves at human expense - and bringing in new technologies that unburden man from oil, gas, drilling, combustive energy, electric grids, ICE, etc.
It is a Brave New World running on Energy Independence. Resistance is futile.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 04 November 2011 at 04:12 PM