Renewable Energy – Tidal Energy
The AR500 tidal turbine has successfully completed Phase 1 of the Goto Islands pilot project and was recovered from the Naru Strait in December 2023.
This phase concluded 12-months of generation with an impressive 97% availability. Built upon the success of the pilot project, the turbine is now ready to be locally upgraded and redeployed in Q1 2025.
The Proteus Marine Renewables Operations team, coupled with local support from Toyo Construction, Goto Transportation and Shibuya Diving, executed the successful recovery in 2 days.
The recovery operations included the retrieval of the export cable dry mate connector, followed by the AR500 turbine itself using Proteus bespoke in-house subsea handling equipment.
The successful recovery also marked a significant milestone as the first retrieval of a tidal turbine using a Japanese DP vessel. The ‘August Explorer’ was the subject of much scrutiny and analysis prior to the operations and she proved to be a versatile and capable vessel when it came to the operations.
The operations were also completed without the use of a work-class ROV. This was made possible with the use of Proteus bespoke in-house subsea handling equipment.
