The Katanes wind-wave project located off Caithness and Sutherland in the north of Scotland could deliver first power by 2022, DP Energy and Floating Power Plant, the developers of the project, said.
The companies have decided to proceed to the next stage of the development, having recently completed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening.
”We consider Katanes to be a world-leading location for an early-stage development of this technology. This, together with the strengths of the local and national supply chain and the Scottish Government’s commitment to support the offshore energy sector, especially emerging technologies such as floating wind and wave, has led us to this decision,” Simon De Pietro , CEO of DP Energy, said.
The developers are now working towards preparing an EIA scoping report, and are evaluating the potential for further development off Scotland’s north coast, De Pietro said.
The long-term goal of the two companies is to develop a commercial scale project in staged development steps. Floating Power Plant has developed the P80 wind-wave energy platform, which hosts a single wind turbine ranging from 5MW to 8MW and integrates a wave energy device with a capacity between 2MW and 3.6MW, depending on the wave resource.
The technology has been proven by two years of offshore, grid-connected testing in Danish waters, the developers said.
”With this decision we are moving towards our first commercial development, based on our patented P80 platform technology,” said Anders Køhler , CEO of Floating Power Plant.
”DP Energy is a valued strategic partner and, as it looks now, our technology could be entering construction and be operational on the Katanes site in a 2021-22 timeframe. We plan to take a staged approach with a first demonstrator of up to 3.6 MW wave and 7-8 MW wind power, followed by a further stage with an array of up to ~47 MW.”