Ofgem (The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets – the Gas and Electricity Regulator in the UK) granted accreditation under the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme for Tocardo’s 1.4 MW EMEC deployment. The company entered the tidal scene in the UK with its FORESEA & InToTidal project kick-off and successful installation of its TFS (Temporary Foundation System) in Orkney earlier this year.
At the Hatston Pier in Kirkwall the TFS was prepared for deployment at the European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC’s) grid-connected tidal test site. The deployment by the Tocardo engineers earlier this year went very smoothly and was the start of the Tocardo’s planned 20-year commercial demonstration project at EMEC’s Fall of Warness tidal test site.
With this deployment at the EMEC site and accreditation from Ofgem, Tocardo feels it is ready for large scale roll-out of its generic solution for tidal energy production. The next deployments are foreseen in Wales and Canada at the FORCE and Petit Passage locations.
Led by Tocardo, the project brings together Orkney based companies EMEC and Leask Marine, and French research institute IFREMER. Tocardo has already been working with international shipyard DAMEN, as well as Leask Marine, Bryan J Rendall Electrical and Aquatera in Orkney for the system deployment at EMEC’s Fall of Warness site.
“We are very pleased the project has been granted” said CEO of Tocardo Tidal Power, Hans van Breugel. “With this accreditation under this renewable support scheme for the EMEC project, a commercial business case has been secured. Tocardo’s benchmark is to produce energy at the cost of offshore wind in the near future. To be able to achieve this, the tidal energy sector needs to be enabled to increase the installed volume of equipment. In that respect, it is important to see an industrial support scheme suitable for the marine energy sector, to encourage technology companies like Tocardo to build out on an industrial scale in the UK. The UK is extremely well positioned as a maritime nation to create new jobs from the growing tidal energy industry”.
A revenue based support mechanism, decreasing over time, has proved to be best in creating a new industry through market incentivisation, as learned from, as an example, the industry growth of the Danish wind energy sector. Tocardo is ready to become one of the larger inward investment companies into the marine energy sector, with a strong operational and production base in Scotland and Wales.
Image: Tocardo at EMEC generating power (Tocardo Tidal Power)
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