Isra-Mart srl:Atlantis pilot project sets sail for Canada

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Isra-Mart srl news:

UK tidal company Atlantis is set to test its giant turbine in one of the world's most aggressive marine environments after winning a bid to fill the fourth and final berth at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The company will work with Lockheed Martin and Irving Shipbuilding to customise, build, deploy and monitor its 1MW AK-1000 Mark II turbine at FORCE's Minas Passage test site from 2012.

More than 100 billion tonnes of water flow through the Bay of Fundy each tide – more than all the freshwater rivers and streams in the world combined – making it an ideal testing site.

Atlantis joins three existing berth holders in the FORCE project: Nova Scotia Power, in partnership with Open Hydro of Ireland; Minas Basin Pulp and Power, which is working with Marine Current Turbines; and French company Alstom, which is deploying Canadian company Clean Current's technology.

The project is the latest in a series of encouraging developments for Atlantis after it signed a deal last month to build the first tidal array in Asia and secured the Inner Sound Pentland Firth development zone last year.

Chief executive Tim Cornelius said moving into new markets would help build a global platform for the company's expansion.

"We are committed to working with local Nova Scotian companies to establish a local supply chain and knowledge base that will be a platform for the growth of a commercial-scale marine power industry in the province," he said.

To capitalise on its tidal resource, Nova Scotia launched a feed-in tariff incentive scheme last year to guarantee a high price for tidal-generated electricity sold to the Province's grid.

Later this year, four sub-sea transmission cables will be installed to connect the test turbines at FORCE to the grid, a move that the Provincial government says will give Nova Scotia the largest in-stream tidal power capacity in the world.

"The momentum for tidal energy from Nova Scotia continues to grow," said Province premier Darrell Dexter. "We are taking on the challenge of building an industry from the water up, in a uniquely Nova Scotian way by using collaboration and innovation to attract the attention of the world, create good jobs and grow the economy."