MPS brings Black & Veatch on board floating wind and wave scheme

Marine Power Systems (MPS) has appointed Black & Veatch to system engineering and coordination role for combined floating wind and wave energy project.

Black & Veatch has been selected to help guide MPS across subsystem design coordination, systems engineering and the certification of its floating wind and wave energy generation hardware.

Working as an extension of MPS technical team, Black & Veatch will lead specific elements of the project, providing technical quality assurance and helping identify and manage technical and programme risk.

The role also encompasses quality, health, safety and environment management and supervision as well as supporting the full-scale MPS’ technology certification process.

Robbie Gibson, Black & Veatch’s director for renewable energy in Europe, said: “A single system that simultaneously captures both wave and wind energy is a more consistent renewable ocean energy source, making maximum use of the lease area from a levelised cost of energy perspective and making intermittence less of a challenge.

“This project plays directly to our strengths and our experience in delivering major marine energy and offshore wind projects. Our broader design portfolio encompasses very many complex system configurations with multiple products and multiple technologies”.

Graham Foster, CTO at MPS, added: “We are continuing to build our best in-class team here at MPS. Our partners and suppliers are very much part of that team and this latest appointment will play a crucial role in providing project and quality assurance.

“The team at Black & Veatch bring invaluable experience in floating wind and wave energy systems and marine structures, coupled with the ability to manage complex interfaces between them and oversee the pathway towards technology certification”.

Whilst offshore winds in shallow waters have been harnessed by fixed bottom wind turbines the wind and wave energy in deep water remains largely unharnessed and represents around 80% of the exploitable energy resources of our oceans.

MPS has developed a flexible floating platform technology that can be configured to harness wind and wave energy either as a combined solution or on their own in deep water.

The company is now working on the deployment of a grid-connected commercial megawatt scale wind and wave device in northern Spain at the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) as well as the deployment of a pre-commercial scale array at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.

To remind, MPS recently appointed Principia as lead contractor on detailed design and engineering of the floating platform that will support both wind and wave energy generating devices, with Bourbon Subsea Services taking a supporting role in the project.