Page 14: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2014)

News

PLAT-O

New Tidal Wave Energy Device

Completes Sea Trials n the continuing quest to harvest ef? cient, renewable en- PLAT-O was launched from the company’s facility in Venture ergy from the power of the world’s tides, an organization Quays, East Cowes, Isle of Wight and towed to the test site at called Sustainable Marine Energy’s announced that its Yarmouth. Once at the site PLAT-O was submerged to instal-

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PLAT-O tidal energy platform has successfully completed its lation depth and a series of tests were run. PLAT-O was then ? rst ? eld trials. successfully resurfaced and towed back to East Cowes, where

Despite the tremendous power and predictability of the world’s it will be prepared for its next series of trials.

waves and tides, efforts to successfully build and bring to mar- The marine operations were run using small vessels, demon- ket a device to harness, store and transmit power in an ef? cient strating that a step change reduction in the cost of installing tid- manner have been largely unsuccessful in the commercial sense. al energy devices can be achieved. The results of the sea trials

In particular the tidal energy industry has struggled with high provide increasing con? dence in the potential for tidal streams costs for installation and maintenance, but Sustainable Marine to provide a commercially viable source of renewable energy.

Energy (SME) claims that PLAT-O could be a game changing “We have reached a huge milestone in the development of technology. It uses an innovative platform which is moored un- our solution to address the costs associated with delivering der the surface of the water signi? cantly reducing costs. tidal energy,” said Jason Hayman, Managing Director, SME.

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