Inyanga Marine wants to spearhead offshore renewables in Canada

(Credit: Inyanga Marine Energy Group)

Inyanga Marine Energy Group announced that it has set up a new office in Canada to help drive the development of offshore renewable energy in the country.

The new company is called Inyanga Maritime Services Nova Scotia Limited, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Kiley Sampson has been appointed as vice president of the Canadian division and will establish a local team to provide offshore operations and engineering capability to the region.

The new company will provide marine engineering and offshore operations support to the renewable energy industry in Canada, across both the offshore wind and tidal energy sectors.

“Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy has been identified by the California-based Electric Power Research Institute as one of the best potential sites in North America for tidal power generation,” Richard Parkinson, CEO of Inyanga Marine Energy Group, said. “Our ambition is to unlock the full potential of the Bay of Fundy and provide low-cost, reliable renewable energy to Canada.”

The Bay of Fundy’s tidal energy resource contains more than four times the combined flow of every freshwater river in the world, with the potential to generate approximately 2,500 MW of green energy, Inyanga Marine said.

“We plan to develop a consortium including local Canadian partners to develop, fund and deploy tidal energy capacity in the Bay of Fundy, using the HydroWing tidal energy technology,” said Kiley Sampson, the Vice President of Inyanga Maritime Services Nova Scotia Limited. “The potential for tidal energy and fixed and floating offshore wind in Nova Scotia is immense and we are poised to seize the opportunity and make it happen.”

In October, Inyanga Marine announced it was launching a crowdfunding round for its HydroWing technology, in partnership with Crowdcube. HydroWing is designed to be a cost-effective and scalable solution to tidal stream energy generation. A supporting structure sits on the seabed, under its own weight. The “wings” that hold the turbines are then lowered into position on this structure. The turbines are bi-directional, so they generate power as the tide comes in and as it goes out.

In September 2024, HydroWing was awarded the largest tidal energy project in the UK in the government’s latest Contracts for Difference allocation round. This doubles the size of the HydroWing project at Morlais in Wales to 20 MW, building on the 10 MW awarded in the previous Contracts for Difference allocation round. Morlais is Menter Môn’s tidal stream energy project. It manages an area of 35Km² of the seabed near Ynys Cybi (Holy Island), Ynys Môn (Anglesey). The scheme has the potential to generate up to 240 MW of low carbon clean electricity, Morlais said.

The company has also recently won the contract to deliver the first tidal energy plant in Southeast Asia. The 1 MW tidal power project will use Inyanga’s HydroWing tidal stream technology and be situated at the Capul Island of Northern Samar in the Philippines, an area known for strong marine currents. The first stage of the project will see the HydroWing tidal stream turbines connected to the electrical network of Capul, an off-grid island currently relying on a 750 kW diesel power plant. The project is expected to deploy in late 2025.

wind turbines in front of an orange sunset

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