USA: Tidal Energy Company Wins International Pioneer Award

ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest, leading tidal energy company, receives the “International Pioneer Award“ during the 9th Energy Ocean International Conference & Exhibition held in Boston, USA for their contribution and efforts in exploring marine energy.

ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest is a is a world market leader in technologies for energy generation from tidal currents occurring in coastal waters. The company is majority-owned by international technology Group ANDRITZ, based in Graz, Austria, the other major shareholders are the local Norwegian utility company Hammerfest Energi and the Spanish utility company Iberdrola.

The company’s 1MW pre-commercial branded HS1000 was successfully installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland in December 2011. The machine delivered first energy to the grid early February and was run up to its rated capacity in May 2012. The HS1000 design is based on a smaller machine, which was installed in Norway as the first ever tidal in-stream turbine with permanent connection to the grid since 2004. This machine has been in operation for more than 17,000 hours and demonstrating 98% availability over an extended testing period.

 Stein Andersen, Managing Director in ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest says:

 “It is a pleasure receiving this award that gratifies all our efforts in providing state of the art technologies in the renewable market. Since the beginning we have aimed at providing innovative and economically sustainable technologies capable of harnessing this vast and unexploited energy resource. The deployment of the HS1000 is a first step towards developing commercial arrays worldwide; – and the first is planned for being deployed in Scotland in 2014.”

 Mark Glazer, Show Director at the EnergyOcean International Annual Award says:

“This is the 9th year we are presenting the International Pioneer Award. The work that ANDRITZ HYDRO Hammerfest is doing in the way of tidal energy in Europe displays the excellence that is expected of an award recipient”.

“Their work exemplifies the promise that ocean energy offers and the power that tidal energy can deliver in the future.”

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Offshore WIND staff, June 24, 2012; Image: hammerfeststrom