NETHERLANDS

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

In 2017, SeaQurrent started the developed of a tidal kite. The concept has been validated by independent universities and research institutes. The founders of SeaQurrent have a background in the offshore oil and gas industry, a pilot and demo is planned for the coming years.

The positive results in 2017 in the pilot plant of REDstack on the Afsluitdijk allow for scaling-up to a 1MW demo pilot plant. Together with four partners, a “Blue Energy deal” was signed in 2017 for this purpose. Blue Energy is energy generated from the difference in salinity between river water and sea water, for example at the point where a river naturally empties into the sea. Reverse Electro Dialysis (RED) is a salinity gradient power technology that makes use of two types of membranes: one allows only positive ions to pass through, and the other allows only negative ions to pass through. Electricity can be generated by arranging these two types of membranes in a RED stack.

The amount of energy generated is related to the difference in salt concentration of the two solutions – the larger the salinity difference between the two solutions, the more energy can be generated. Blue Energy generates energy without producing CO₂, is easy scalable, 24/7 available and the only “waste” product is brackish water. Blue Energy is a perfect candidate for base-load energy production and application in the energy-mix.