Marine Power Systems set sights on pre-commercial multi-Megawatt array at EMEC
19.05.2021
Marine Power Systems have signed a berth option agreement with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland.
The option agreement gives Marine Power Systems first refusal to a berth at EMEC’s grid-connected revenue generating Billia Croo wave test site for the deployment of two multi-megawatt WaveSub wave energy converters.
The project represents Marine Power Systems first planned deployment of a commercial scale array and will support the ongoing development of the device and its functionality to ensure that the commercial arrays delivered at increasing scale represent the most robust, reliable and cost-effective devices on the market. The project will also deliver further research and development around manufacturing and deployment at commercial scale.
The announcement comes at an exciting time for Marine Power Systems. Now working at multimegawatt scale to prove their grid connected technology this represents the first of a number of projects they have in the pipeline for which more details will follow shortly.
Covering floating wind and wave energy generation technology, Marine Power Systems has a unique business proposition; they are the only company developing optimal solutions for the entire opportunity covering floating wind, wave and combined wind and wave energy extraction technology in deep water.
WaveSub has a unique wave energy capture mechanism – directly and efficiently harnessing both the heave and surge energy of the wave. Each energy absorber can capture over a megawatt of power, and each WaveSub device has multiple absorbers, leading to significant multi megawatt power output per machine.
EMEC’s best in class facility will help prove what is achievable in some of the harshest marine environments in the world while in close proximity to sheltered waters and harbours.
Rob Flynn, Commercial Manager at EMEC commented, “MPS’ approach to technology development has been very impressive to date and we’re looking forward to working with Gareth and his team to further develop their demonstration plans at two of our grid-connected berths at our Billia Croo test site.”
Gareth Stockman, CEO at MPS commented, “This project represents another significant step forward for the business and our progress towards market readiness. Small scale arrays of wind & wave projects such as this one at EMEC are important to achieving our vision of being a world leading supplier of marine energy devices. We continue to develop the commercial team here at MPS to expedite our plans and we are already getting significant traction with a number of key partners and customers in the market. We have more exciting news to come in the forthcoming weeks and months of project developments both here in the UK and overseas. All of these ventures will undoubtedly allow us to support the UK’s ‘Build Back Greener’ ambitions whilst both as a nation and globally realise our NetZero carbon reduction goals through the deployment of our world leading technology.”