Minesto, a company specializing in tidal technologies to generate power, announced it has achieved new milestone for its Deep Green technology.
Quarter-scale sea tests for Deep Green have been under progress at Minesto’s test facility in Northern Ireland since 2013. The test results now surpass previously noted maximum levels of electricity generation, the company claims.
“Following technical development progress in design and control system, the kite is flying with higher trajectory precision than before – which means improved electricity production performance,” says Heije Westberg, CTO at Minesto.
In the tests, the quarter-scale model generated an output of more than 3 kW at a tidal current velocity of 0.8 m/s. The results correspond to full power production for a full-scale 0.5MW power plant at 1.75 m/s current velocity. These conclusions are consistently drawn from three independent computational models which Minesto use for simulating full-scale performance.
The test results indicate adequate power generation performance for the corresponding design of the power plant at full scale. It reduces technical risks in our full-scale project and further strengthens our belief in the commercial viability of the Deep Green technology, says Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto.
“We now move forward to see how we through various test methods and simulation can increase performance of the technology further. The next step is to, in the weeks to come, begin testing of a new improved wing design,” Westberg said.
Rajani Baburajan