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Subhub with Tocardo T-1

QED Naval launches Seedrs crowdfunding campaign

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Crowdfunding campaign QED Naval

Tocardo’s shareholder QED Naval has launched a crowdfunding campaign to complete the deployment of its Subhub tidal platform and Tocardo T-1 turbines at Yarmouth Tidal Test Centre. QED launched the campaign, valued at £15 million, on the Seedrs platform, and is looking to supercharge the companies growth by bringing investors on board as shareholders.

Onshore testing completed

The turbines have been shipped autumn 2021 to Pembroke Dock for integration with the Subhub. After having mounted three Tocardo’s T-1 turbines onboard the Subhub platform at Mainstay Marine Solutions. QED Naval is now gearing up to deploy the community demonstrator (CD) device for real sea trials.

Yarmouth Tidal Test Centre

The upcoming trials will be done at the Yarmouth Tidal Test Centre. The purpose is to demonstrate how tidal energy can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed and maintained over large distances and a broad range of weather conditions. Furthermore, the trials will serve for the validation of associated design tools and processes.

About Subhub

The self-deploying foundation system Subhub is a platform designed to support the commissioning, testing, transportation, and installation of an array of tidal turbines. QED Naval’s self-deploying platform can cut costs of deploying and maintaining turbines by circa 60% and, by clever hydrodynamic design, can improve yields from the site by up to 48%.

Tocardo T-1

Shipment of three Tocardo T-1 tidal turbines

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Three T-1 turbines delivered in Pembroke

On behalf of the board of Tocardo BV I’m proud to share this news with the rest of the world.  After winning the tender last year, preparations, procurement, lots of manhours and persistence we have managed to ship three Tocardo T-1 tidal turbines. The bi-directional turbines have been successfully transported towards Pembroke dock where they will be installed on QED Naval’s Subhub community scale platform. The full systems integration will be conducted at the quayside. This is much safer and logistically easier than connecting up tidal turbine systems offshore.

The T-1 turbine

The T-1 is Tocardo’s community scale solution. By generating energy in a predictable and cost-effective way the T-1 is the best tidal turbine in its market segment with power outputs ranging from 40 to 100 kW. Due to its relatively small size, it can be installed in shallow waters (4 meters and deeper). The turbines are made to last with very minimal maintenance. The design lifetime is at least 20 years.

Cutting down LCOE

Logistics operations have a significant impact on the LCOE of our technology. We are convinced that it is better to install a larger number of medium sized turbines; turbines that can be brought to a (remote) project location by means of regular available (road) transport. The three Tocardo T-1’s will be utilized on the novel Subhub design. Subhub is a submersible, gravity based, foundation platform that supports every need of tidal turbines through life. After the system integration at the quayside the cost for the installation offshore is quite low because for the deployment QED Naval will be using low-cost harbor tugs only.

A big thank you

A big thank you goes out to: the team, contractors and all supply chain partners who helped us with their service and expertise to achieve this new milestone for Tocardo BV.

Marine Energy WalesMarine Energy Wales

State of the sector 2021 report – Marine Energy Wales

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Marine Energy Wales

Wales is working hard to gain the early mover advantage to position itself as a global leader for the marine energy sector. Marine Energy Wales brings together technology developers, supply chain, academia and the public sector. Recently Marine Energy Wales published their state of the sector report edition 2021. Furthermore, Marine Energy Wales works to create a supportive policy environment to ensure that Wales remains one of the hotspots for emerging technologies such as tidal energy. Based upon their latest insights they are successful; the investment in the sector increased.

Investment in the marine energy sector has increased for the fifth year in a row

The 2021 State of the Sector report – published July 20th – details the recent developments in the industry, and looks forward to what the future has to offer. The key message of this report is: investment in the marine energy sector has increased for the fifth year in a row. Twenty emerging developers are progressing projects in Wales. In addition, four test and demonstration sites are under development. You can download the full report here: State of the Sector 2021

The importance of Welsh developments for Tocardo

In view of the region’s scale and ambitions, we closely monitor these developments. Not least because our JV partners have ambitions to install capacity on the Morlais tidal site. Wales has benefitted from our ambitions already with QED Naval establishing itself here and from recent orders and, as QED sets about acquiring site options for the future.

Jeremy Smith & Keith Murray

QED is now showcasing its community scale Subhub platform equiped with our robust and proven Tocardo T-1 tidal turbines. Furthermore, QED is building its next generation 1 MW industrial scale platform.

An exciting opportunity for investors!

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An exciting opportunity for investors!

Now is your chance to get involved: our Edinburgh-based business partner QED Naval has launched its first crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs platform. The funding will assist further develop existing sites and to secure potential new locations for its patented Subhub tidal platform. The company (QED) also secured an award of €3.5m of EU funding and a place on Interreg’s €46m Tidal Stream Industry Energiser Project (TIGER) last year. Your green impact investment in renewable tidal energy with QED will help further demonstrate our key efficiencies, as outlined above, to the $76bn global market which we are addressing.

Subhub

One of the key design drivers for Subhub was to minimise the environmental impact of the platform. The best way to do that is to make it a seabed mounted system so it is invisible from the surface and maintains the seascape and navigation channels of shipping. It is beyond the diving depth of most birds. Advantageously, it means the extremes of wave loading are exponentially less than at the surface. Subhub is a submersible, gravity based foundation that supports an array of tidal turbines through life. It’s hydrodynamic hull form steers and accelerates the flow into the turbines to significantly enhancing the energy yield having a dramatic impact on the Levelised Cost Of Energy (LCOE) of the overall project.

The added value of tidal power

QED Naval managing director Jeremy Smith said: “Tidal energy is not only renewable, it is the only one that is 100% predictable, can guarantee power output every day of the year, and globally will be worth $76bn by 2050. “So, when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not out, tidal can quite simply fill the gaps in our grid requirement and prevent us having to switch to diesel, gas or coal power.

Get involved

This is a unique opportunity for QED Naval to supercharge their growth, by bringing investors on board as shareholders. This fundraising round will allow them to get going on all the incredible initiatives they have planned for the future. Get involved!

QED Naval and HydroWing acquire Tocardo Tidal Power

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In the midst of Brexit and a new decade, QED Naval and HydroWing are delighted to announce a new collaborative European joint venture and with it the acquisition of Holland’s premier tidal turbines business, Tocardo.

This tri-partite, collaborative partnership brings together decades of multi-sector expertise as well as a blend of well tested, complementary products. This new and innovative joint venture provides a truly end to end service with a spectrum of turbines, foundation systems, marine operations, as well as design, support and service expertise.

Tocardo’s technology development started in 1999 in cooperation with the Energy Research Foundation ECN and various Dutch engineering companies. First prototyped in 2005, Tocardo has an unbeaten track record of continuous tidal power production for nine years in a row. Since then it developed turbines and associated technologies, achieving 90% – 100% energy yield performance. Tocardo has 9 turbines in continual operation and has 21 patents in place. A focus on reliability, with very low operations and maintenance costs has resulted in industry leading levelised costs of energy (LCOE). Tocardo’s turbines are direct drive, i.e. without a gearbox or mechanical pitch mechanism. They have a patented, smart rotor bi-blade design, which enables it to be bi-directional with a guaranteed 20-year lifetime.
Tocardo will continue to deliver its state of the art, reliable turbines and after-sales support. It will now also be investing in additional turbine development. This will be done in partnership with QED Naval and HydroWing, who bring a combined 50 years of marine design, development and operations experience, along with their experience in foundation systems, LCOE and yield improvements. The companies have already been working in partnership on tidal projects in Europe and will be expanding on this as they further develop their complimentary technologies.

The overriding vision for this new joint venture is to harness the decades of tidal expertise within the three companies, to finesse the tried and tested turbine and foundation technologies with some novel ideas, and to really drive down costs, particularly in terms of LCOE. The partnership now aims to take their technologies and develop them at a larger scale and is currently interested in hearing from like-minded project partners. Richard Parkinson, CEO of HydroWing: “This bigger, long term, end to end vision is quite unique in that it brings an unrivalled pool of expertise and collaboration across European tidal energy. The new joint venture is committed to expand and will be introducing their combined technologies in new projects starting in 2020.” Andries Van Unen, CEO of Tocardo: “We didn’t get to this point alone. In joining all these forces together there has been some great vision, hard work and expertise. We are very grateful to all parties who have helped get this partnership over the line: namely investors, existing customers, the hard-working staff and project team. We are now in the fortunate position to have a geographically greater market presence and team with some of the most talented experts in the industry behind us which can build on the technologies and results achieved over the years. We really can’t wait to show you some of the exciting projects and innovations we are working on.” Jeremy Smith, CEO of QED Naval Ltd: “All three companies are very excited to announce this exciting recipe and European partnership which will takes the key ingredients of tidal technologies developed over the last 12 years, great turbines and foundation systems, spiced up with some of the industries great minds to deliver great value reliable tidal solutions.”