UK-based tidal energy developer HydroWing has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with state-owned company Indonesia Power to develop tidal energy projects in Indonesia.
The collaboration aims to accelerate tidal energy development in the country by studying sites and resource availability, as well as creating a feasible business case and pilot project.
The first site was visited in late September and the corresponding resource assessment campaign will be organised before the end of 2022.
Ahsin Sidqi, Indonesia Power president director said in a statement: “Right now Indonesia Power has 100 year O&M competency in Hydro, hopefully with this collaboration with HydroWing as a technology provider, Indonesia Power obtains another new competency as a power generation company in the country, to become a trusted energy solution provider. Indonesia Power and HydroWing together will explore more potential development of tidal power plant in Indonesia.”
The HydroWing tidal solution includes a permanent gravity-based structure and a multi-rotor device designed to deliver redundancy and increase energy availability. The technology relies on a Tocardo turbine, which can be utilised in any source of flowing water.
Richard Parkinson, HydroWing managing director: “We view Indonesia as a prime market for our technology with an excellent resource and increasing demand for clean and reliable energy. This MOU with Indonesia Power is pivotal for us and our local partners to move rapidly towards significant commercial scale projects in the Archipelago”
According to HydroWing, this deployment will be the first tidal energy power plant in Indonesia and is an important step towards securing cleaner baseload, which can be achieved when combined with solar energy and battery storage.
Renewable energy is becoming increasingly important to island nations such as the eastern Indonesian archipelago. Increased renewables will boost energy independence and speed up the transition from expensive diesel generators to cheaper forms of cleaner energy.
