Sino-Dutch consortium funds feasibility study on tidal energy
September 11, 2014 Category Alternative energy, Environment
A Sino-Dutch consortium is spending tens of millions of U.S. dollars on a feasibility study for a project to harness tidal energy to produce clean power. Eight Dutch engineering firms and university institutes have joined Chinese industry and academic partners in the venture. The project, worth up to USD15 billion, would also need to have its environmental impact assessed. It has the potential to help China lessen its dependence on foreign suppliers and increase production of clean energy to help cut air pollution. The venture carries immense risks as its viability can only be proven if a full-scale project is built. “The biggest challenge is that the project must be done on a big scale in order to be economically viable,” Rob Steijn, one of the inventors of the technology. He is Director of the River, Coast and Sea Department at Amsterdam-based infrastructure design and consulting firm Arcadis, which plays a coordinating role in the consortium led by infrastructure design and construction firm Strukton.
Steijn said that after 30 months of studies, the partners are confident in the science and believe a project between Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian has higher feasibility compared with an alternative project at the entrance to the Bohai Sea in the north. He said the southern project has 5,000 megawatt (MW) of annual generating capacity and is estimated to cost USD15 billion to build. It is about 10% more expensive than a Chinese nuclear power plant – among the most expensive – on a per MW basis. Analysts said this means the tidal project will need greater state subsidies than offshore wind turbines, already among the most expensive to produce and turn a profit. The Dutch consortium has spent about USD4 million on a three-year preliminary feasibility study that will be completed at the end of this year. The Dutch government contributed USD1.27 million. “Mass commercialization of tidal power is very far away, maybe it will happen by 2050,” said Lin Boqiang of the Xiamen University Center for China Energy Economics Research. “Chinese research institutions may be looking into its feasibility out of our nation’s desire to enhance energy security and tackle pollution, but the cost-competitiveness thus far is highly doubtful,” the South China Morning Post reports.
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