Developer DP Energy and technology start-up Floating Power Plant (FPP) are moving ahead with the lead-off stage of their planned 200MW Katanes ocean energy project, having recently completed an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the site, located off the coast of north Scotland.

The project – launched in late-2016 as a joint venture which also took in the same-sized Dyfed wind-wave development off South Wales – will make use of FPP’s P80 technology platform, which is made up a 5-8MW floating wind turbine fitted with a 2-3.6MW wave energy device.

"We have undertaken a detailed analysis of the Katanes project located off Caithness and Sutherland in the north of Scotland and, having completed EIA screening, have decided to proceed to the next stage of this development. We consider Katanes to be a world-leading location for an early-stage development of this technology,” said DP Energy chief executive Simon di Pietro.

“This, together with the strengths of the local and national supply chain and the Scottish government’s commitment to support the offshore energy sector, especially emerging technologies such as floating wind and wave, has led us to this decision.”

FPP also is rather confident about the location and its wave resources.

“The Katanes site offers FPP an ideal project to prove the commercial benefits of the technology,” FPP general manager Chris McConville told Recharge. “The site has a good level of wave resource, providing not only a greater, more consistent energy production, but also challenges around accessibility for O&M [operations and maintenance], which the unique artificial harbour effect of FPP’s hybrid will assist in overcoming.”

The project team will now prepare an EIA Scoping Report for issue to the statutory authorities and for wider consultation. In the long term, plans are to have units for Katnes in construction “in a 2021-22 timeframe”, according to FPP chief executive Anders Køhler, and using a “staged approach” move from a 3.6MW demonstrator up to an array of up to around 47MW”.

A prototype of FPP wind-wave unit, first reported on in Recharge in 2010, has undergone two years of grid-connected testing in Danish waters.

Di Pietro noted that the companies were also “evaluating the potential for further development” in the waters around Katanes.

UPDATES with comment from FPP general manager Chris McConville

Wind

Wind-wave power project ploughs ahead off Scotland