Initial installation complete at Minesto's Faroe Islands tidal kite project

Swedish marine energy developer Minesto AB has finalised the first offshore installation phase of its tidal kite project in the Faroe Islands.

The company said on Monday that the gravity-based foundation for the facility is already in place in the Vestmannasund strait. The hardware, designed and made by UK-based Leask Marine in Orkney, will be the connection point for Minesto’s DG100 tidal kite system.

"When installed to the foundation, the bottom joint of the kite system provides a pivoting connection point for the tether, allowing the kite to operate freely in its automatically controlled figure-of-eight trajectory. This enables the system to generate predictable renewable tidal electricity," the company explained.

The foundation was installed while the COVID-19 pandemic raged in Europe, which led to certain logistical challneges.

Minesto is working on the tidal kite project together with Faroese electric utility SEV. The latter in November 2018 committed to buying power from the two 100-kW units that will be hooked to the local power network. The next step in the installation phase includes laying the sub-sea export cable that will transmit the electricity to the SEV-operated power grid.

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