World’s first floating tidal BlueTEC platform ready for electricity generation
The platform can be shipped as containers and installed anywhere in the world, to provide clean electricity in remote areas and small islands, replacing expensive and polluting diesel generators (Image: Bluewater)
The floating platform, which holds tidal turbines below the sea surface, will soon be positioned near the island of Texel – supplying clean electricity to the Dutch grid. This first BlueTEC will serve as a demonstration platform targeted at remote locations world-wide, such as islands in Indonesia, Philippines and the Pacific. It is also the start of further development of higher capacity tidal energy platforms, to be deployed in large farms.
To realise the project, a group of Dutch offshore companies, including Bluewater, Damen, Van Oord, Tocardo, TKF, Vryhof, NIOZ, Nylacast and TTC, has joined forces.
The platform itself is a development of Damen’s modular barge system – a flexible product that can be used for the construction of a wide range of vessels from dredgers and jetties to ferries and pontoons.
Damen used three standard container-sized modules to construct the Texel platform.
An important advantage of tidal energy is its predictability and consistency, bringing stability to local electricity grids, the conglomeration said.
As all vulnerable electronic equipment is safely housed inside the unit, with easy access from the surface since it floats, inspection for maintenance and repair purposes is easy.
