
In the North Atlantic, ocean energy developer Minesto is moving forward with the pioneering build-out of its tidal energy site in the Faroe Islands, The Hestfjord Dragon Farm – a “first-of-a-kind” tidal energy array with Minesto Dragon 12 kites, with a total capacity of 10 MW in a first phase.
Following the utility-scale installation of the Dragon 12 in Vestmanna and the corresponding interest by various parties in the technology, Minesto assigned strategic advisor Ernst & Young (EY) to the Dragon Farm Project, with a focus on investments.
After months of running a pilot program with two Minesto Dragon kites (Dragon 12 and Dragon 4) connected to the power grid, the technology has reached another milestone. As an initial step towards the proposed 200 MW build-out, the Hestfjord Dragon Farm is moving forward in the first 10 MW phase.
In order to support the project and handle interest from various parties in the technology, Minesto has engaged advisory firm EY to provide hands-on support related to project financing and industrial partnerships. The collaboration has a global scope, initially keying in on the first tidal energy build-out in the Faroe Islands: The Hestfjord Dragon Farm (10+20 MW).
“Scaling-up of the technology by initiating the Hestfjord Dragon Farm build-out is a major milestone for Minesto in providing commercial-scale tidal energy,” said Dr Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto. “It’s of great value to have support of the EY team to help in discussions with various interested parties when it comes to financial and/or commercial partnerships.”
The site development activities in Hestfjord are ongoing and include resource modeling and assessment, site optimization, grid connection, environmental assessments, and monitoring. In addition, a recent upgrade of the local onshore electric distribution grid will be able to accommodate the needs of the Hestfjord tidal farm, Minesto said.
In the next phase, the permit and license applications will be completed, and an investment consortium will be formed to undertake the final site development and installation work.
This January, Minesto announced it had completed all the infrastructure work for the Dragon 12 tidal energy project, meaning the site was ready for power production. Infrastructure work on the tidal energy system was concluded with the connection of the export cable to the foundation. Completion of the sub-sea infrastructure included re-locating the pre-installed junction box at the end of the export cable into a frame on the foundation to create the plug-and-play connection with the tether to the Dragon 12 kite.
In February 2020, Minesto signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with electric utility SEV, advancing the parties’ collaboration to integrate tidal energy into the Faroe Islands’ electricity mix. The PPA comprises the planned installations of two 100 kW systems of Minesto’s subsea kite technology and an additional 2 MW capacity allocated for installations of utility-scale tidal energy systems.