Minesto Receives €5.1 Million To Develop Deep Green Tidal Kite Technology

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Leading marine renewable energy company Minesto and its partners have received €5.1 million to further develop the Deep Green tidal kite technology.

Swedish-based Minesto, along with its eight partners, will use the €5.1 million to improve the Deep Green technology’s robustness and performance with the aim of developing the next generation Deep Green power plant, with better performance, longer life expectancy, and improved reliability, and all in order to further reduce costs.

Deep Green is Minesto’s tidal kite technology, and it produces electricity as illustrated below:

1. The water current creates a hydrodynamic lift force on the wing which pushes the kite forward
2. The kite is steered in an 8-shaped trajectory by a rudder and reaches a speed ten times the water current speed
3. As the kite moves, water flows through the turbine and electricity is produced in the gearless generator
4. The electricity is transmitted through a cable in the tether attached to the wing
5. The electricity continues in sub-sea cables on the seabed to the shore

Minesto boasts that Deep Green reaches a speed 10 times higher than the actual current of the water, which, subsequently, has a cubic relationship to the power, giving 1,000 times more power.

The investment comes by way of EU Horizon 2020, “the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever,” making use of nearly €80 billion of funding available between 2014 to 2020.

”Succeeding in establishing development projects with leading players in Europe like this, is a proof of the interest in our product and our ability to establish large projects,” said Anders Jansson, CEO of Minesto. ”Being able to take part in this effort on marine energy, by the EU, is of course highly pleasing, motivating and extremely important.”

The Deep Green development program will run for 30 months, investigating and building a more reliable and efficient, while equally environmentally friendly, technology.

“We have been involved in the marine energy sector for a number of years and we are delighted to be part of the PowerKite project,” said Ana Novak, Project Manager, ENGIE Lab, one of Minesto’s eight partners. ”The Deep Green technology is focusing on proving cost-efficient use of low velocity tidal streams which could be beneficial for the tidal sector as a whole.”