Tidal Energy Australia's Derby Power Project Awaits Environmental Approval, Offtake Agreement

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Tidal Energy Australia Pty Limited (Perth, Australia) is awaiting environmental approval from Australia's federal government for its grassroot, 40-megawatt (MW) tidal power station in Derby. The company is also finalizing an agreement to sell power to a local mining operation.

The project would be located at the mouth of Doctor's Creek, 14 kilometers from the town of Derby in the shire of West Kimberly, Western Australia. Tidal Energy is working with GHD Australia (Perth, Australia) on the project design, which is almost complete, and AECOM (Perth) is the environmental consultant on the project.

Tidal power relies on the rise and fall of the tides to turn the turbines for electricity generation. Water is kept behind a barrier until there is enough of a difference in the water levels to drive the turbines. The power station would be based on a double-basin technology, utilizing five 8-MW hydro-turbines.

At Doctor's Creek, water levels in the two basins will be managed through the operation of gates in the barriers, and the continuous flow of water from the high basin to the low basin through the turbines. Two substations and about 125 kilometers of transmission line also will be installed to connect the power station to the offtake partner, possibly one of the mines in the West Kimberly region.

In July 2013, the project received conditional environmental approval from the Western Australia government. Brian Rourke, the managing director of Tidal Energy Australia, said he expects to receive the final environmental approvals by the end of the year. After finalizing an offtake agreement, Tidal Energy will choose an engineering, procurement and construction contractor to build and deliver the project. The construction kick-off is expected by the second quarter of 2015, during the dry season.

This project has been in the pipeline for more than a decade, going through road blocks at various stages. Initially, the proposal was for a 48-MW plant with 450 kilometers of transmission lines, later revised to 250 kilometers, and now to about 125 kilometers, depending on which mine signs the offtake agreement.

Tidal Energy Australia is also at work on a 1-MW solar thermal pilot plant project, using new graphite storage technology from Solastor Pty Limited (Sydney, Australia), near Kalbarri. This plant would be focused mainly on research and development, and less toward commercial applications.

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