Date(s)
Thursday 9 April 2015

Time
12:00 am

Location
Exact location will be announced

Address

Town
Den Helder

Country
Netherlands

On Thursday April 9 the first floating platform for tidal power generation will be launched ceremonially. A few days later, the BlueTec Tidal Platform will be transported to the official location in the Marsdiep. The electricity produced by the tidal current will be supplied to research centre NIOZ on Texel. NIOZ is one of the twelve partners in the consortium led by Bluewater Energy Services that designed and built the platform.

The group consists of Bluewater, Damen, Niron Steel, Van Oord, Acta Marine, Tocardo, Schottel Hydro, TKF, Vryhof Anchors, NIOZ, Nylacast and Tidal Test Centre. The partners have contributed their expertise. They are all specialists in the maritime and offshore. Of the design and operation of platforms for the oil and gas industry to shipbuilding, from sea to install tidal turbines, power cables to anchors and marine research to synthetic materials.

The BlueTec Tidal Platform is the first of its kind. After the initial preparations, approximately one and a half years ago working on the prototype. This one is 24 meters long. The design is modular, so simple larger – and interconnected – platforms can be made, depending on their location and energy demand.

Turbine
Due to the small width platform looks a bit like a submarine, but it was still really surfaced. The most important part is indeed under water: the turbine pitch straight down. It is the T1 of the Dutch company Tocardo Tidal Turbines. That protrudes 10 feet below the surface and has two blades. That can run on two sides; they automatically adjust to the tides and currents to.