Tidal Energy Turbine Comes Ashore in Japan

The AR500 tidal turbine has successfully completed Phase 1 of the Goto Islands pilot project and was recovered from the Naru Strait by Proteus Marine Renewables.

The 500kW-rated turbine was recovered in December 2023. The first phase of the Goto Islands pilot concluded 12-months of generation with an impressive 97% availability, according to Proteus Marine Renewables.

Proteus Marine Renewables was created in 2022 when SIMEC Atlantis Energy agreed to sell its majority stake in Advanced Tidal Engineering and Services division (ATES), which resulted in the creation of a new tidal energy company.

Building upon the success of the pilot project, the turbine is now ready to be locally upgraded and redeployed in the first quarter of 2025.

In 2022, the Japanese Ministry of Environment approved the country’s first megawatt-scale tidal energy project, that will involve the upgrade of the AR500 turbine to 1.1MW capacity for deployment at the same location offshore Goto Islands.

The announcement was shared by Kyuden Mirai Energy, SIMEC Atlantis’ client in the joint 500kW project that was just concluded.

The retrieval operation

The Proteus Marine Renewables operations team, coupled with local support from Toyo Construction, Goto Transportation and Shibuya Diving, executed the retrieval of the turbine in two days.

The recovery operations included the retrieval of the export cable dry mate connector, followed by the AR500 turbine itself using Proteus bespoke in-house subsea handling equipment.

“Our small offshore team executed the works with their usual high standards of safety, planning, contingency and efficiency in a very challenging environment. Anyone that has worked in strong tidal flows will the know the challenges it brings,” said Ryan Biggs,Head of Production & Offshore Operations at Proteus Marine Renewables.

The successful recovery also marked a significant milestone as the first retrieval of a tidal turbine using a Japanese DP vessel – the August Explorer, provided by Toyo Construction.

The operations were also completed without the use of a work-class ROV. This was made possible with the use of Proteus’ bespoke in-house subsea handling equipment, the company said.