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FORCE 2022 Project Update

2022 Highlights

Technology Development

  • From November 2021 to April 2022 DP Energy deployed and retrieved a small monitoring platform in Berth E. The monitoring platform contained sensors used to demonstrate equipment functionality at the FORCE site. DP Energy plans to deploy 6 Andrtiz Hammerfest Hydro (AHH) MK1s; the Mk1 has an 18.4 m diameter rotor and rated power of 1.5 MW for a project total of 9MW. The turbine is a horizontal axis, 3 bladed, seabed mounted tidal turbine, which has been successfully deployed (3 machines) at MeyGen in Scotland. The first of the MK1 turbines is scheduled to beinstalled and commissioned in mid 2024, subject to regulatory approval and final investment decision by the parties.

  • In 2021-2022, BigMoon has been engaged in the assembly of its first device at East Coast Metal Fabrication in the Sydport Industrial Park. BigMoon plans to build a total of 18 devices, each generating about half a megawatt of electricity, or enough to power about 500 homes. East Coast Metal Fabrication has stated that assembling the unit creates up to 20 full-time jobs for up to six months. Each unit has a large wheel suspended between the pontoons of a 30-metre barge anchored to the ocean floor. The barge swivels to face the current in both directions. The “Falcon” was first launched Sept 15, 2022 and is currently in trials.

  • In May 2022, Sustainable Marine announced it had delivered the first floating in-stream tidal power to Nova Scotia’s grid, using the 420kW PLAT-I 6.40 floating tidal energy platform built in Nova Scotia. The platform was deployed and supported by its multipurpose construction vessel called the Tidal Pioneer , and moored via the company’s Swift Anchors technology. The Tidal Pioneer is a multicat, and is 26 metres long and 11 metres wide. Its offset superstructure allows for a large working deck area, and the square bow is equipped for pushing barges.

  • Sustainable Marine is preparing to deliver the world’s first floating tidal array at FORCE, using its demonstration site at Grand Passage to prove up its technology and environmental monitoring systems, before commencing deployments in the Minas Passage.

FORCE

  • Operations in Minas Passage over the last year included the successful deployment of a cabled sensor platform to gather resource data and marine mammal monitoring data; a lobster study as part of the EEMP, and continuous data capture as part of the Risk Assessment Program (RAP) via the array of acoustic receivers through the site.

  • FORCE is now in the third and final year of a $2M research projects funded by NRCan’s Emerging Renewable Power Program to support greater regulatory clarity around tidal project development. The Risk Assessment Program (RAP) is a collaborative effort between Acadia University, Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), Marine Renewables Canada, Mi’kmaw Conservation Group, Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University, and local fishers to create a detailed, credible assessment tool to gauge the probability that fish will encounter a tidal device.

  • VITALITY: a subsea cabled platform was successfully deployed in the Minas Passage in May 2022 to stream live site and marine mammal monitoring data back to the FORCE visitor centre; work is underway to make those data sets accessible to the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System (CIOOS). CIOOS is a national online platform for sharing, discovering and accessing ocean data in Canada.

  • Vectron: FORCE’s R&D efforts related to the characterization of tidal currents and turbulence are leading the world. The Vectron is the world’s first stand-alone instrument to remotely measure, in high resolution, turbulence in the mid-water column.

  • An X-band marine radar has been continuously operating atop the FORCE Visitor Centre since 2015; as part of RAP, from 2020 to 2022, this radar was upgraded, a new radar was added on Cape Sharp headland, and a mobile radar system was created.

  • FORCE and DeepSense created Echofilter, which uses machine learning to assist in the identification of non-biological signals contained in hydroacoustic data.

  • FORCE and DeepSense also developed software that can synthesize 500,000 data points into a single, organized, readable report in 15 minutes – including text, figures, and data tables.

  • FORCE hired Dr. Graham Daborn of Acadia University to lead a fish synthesis project to bring together existing literature from stock assessments, prior hydroacoustic surveys and acoustic telemetry-based surveys.