Tocardo Tidal Turbines has installed three of its T1 tidal turbines in the Dutch ‘Afsluitdijk’, a 32 km long primary sea defence.
Managed by Dutch Tidal Testing Centre, the three turbines are the first to be installed closely together in an array.
“The turbines will give us vital data and experience in turbine arrays. We can now monitor the array in turbulent waters and see how the turbines interact,” says Hans van Breugel, Tocardo’s chief executive officer.
The array will have a capacity of more than 300 kW, producing electricity for about 100 households. Dutch energy company Greenchoice will buy and distribute the electricity. Once the array’s operations have been fine-tuned and evaluated, the project partners plan to implement additional tidal installations, with a capacity of up to 2 MW, in the Afsluitdijk.
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