Credible information available to Goldstreet Business has confirmed that engineers of Seabased, the Norwegian company partnering TC’s Energy will arrive in Accra in the middle of the this month to commence talks with officials of national power distributor, GRIDco.
According to officials of TC’s Energy, the engineers will in addition conduct some technical studies on the ground.
In an exclusive interview with Mr. Anthony Opoku, CEO of TC’s Energy, he said 5MW of the expected full 100mw will be ‘built this year since we already have infrastructure on the ground to evacuate 20MW while additional infrastructure is being built to evacuate the anticipated 100MW expected to be delivered within the next 24 months.’
The project which is a renewable energy producing facility to be sited in Ada has already been cleared by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to commence business.
CEO of Seabased, Øivind Magnussen, in an interview published in Tidal Energy Today on March 23, 2018 said the project is being executed in phases to lower the risks and secure timely deliveries both for the customer and Seabased in addition to building a robust supply chain to be able to anticipate further growth.
The project, he intimated is a turnkey system from buoy to grid. ‘The Seabased S2.7 is a simple robust, scalable linear generator that is placed on the seabed, ideally at a depth of 20-35 meters, and is optimized for medium wave climates like the ones we find in West Africa.
‘Buoys on the surface are moved by the power of the waves and transmit the energy through steel lines to the generators, which convert the mechanical energy of the waves into AC electricity. Cables on the seabed carry the electrical energy to a switch gear that makes the electricity suitable for grid use,’ he explained.
The 100 MW wave park is one of the first, and one of the largest commercial contracts in the fledgling wave energy industry which has the potential to provide more than 100% of the electricity generated globally today.
A contract between TC’s Energy and Seabased signed in Brussels, Belgium on March 20 this year mandates the latter to design, manufacture, and install the turnkey wave energy park with an option for local final assembly of non-core technology as the project scales up. This would create local jobs in operations and maintenance of the wave park, according to the memorandum of understanding.
