UK tidal energy company Proteus Marine Renewables announced that a report commissioned by the European Investment Bank (EIB) validates the company’s forecasted Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) reduction for their AR3000 tidal energy system.
The company said the report shows that Europe’s SET target of below €100/MWh at 1GW of deployment is possible for tidal projects that use its AR3000 systems.
The EIB report studies the 12MW tidal pilot project “NH1” currently being developed by Normandie Hydroliennes using Proteus’ tidal technology, and the further LCoE reductions achievable by the next phase NH2 (~200MW). It concludes that “the LCoE reductions predicted by Normandy Hydroliennes (NH) are reasonable and, in some cases, conservative”. NH expects that an LCoE of ~150/MWh (€2020) will be achieved at the first 200MW array, aligned to the targets set by the “2030 Ocean Energy Vision” report, published in 2020.
This expectation, including allowance for inflation, has now been verified by the EIB-commissioned report, which goes on to state that “the technological and scale changes present a promising outlook for the tidal energy industry, with significant cost reductions and improved efficiency.”
Proteus CEO, Drew Blaxland, said, “We’re delighted to see that Proteus’ technical innovations have been recognized as critical to reducing LCoE, and to have the forecasts verified independently. It provides a strong foundation for NH’s development plans in France and should strengthen investor confidence in tidal energy achieving large-scale arrays globally.”
The company launched a crowdfunding campaign Oct. 1.
