Tocardo has come to an agreement on the acquisition of the 1.25MW Oosterschelde Tidal Power Plant, the largest tidal array in the world, which has seen it brought back into operation.

The acquisition follows a successful technical due diligence phase during September and Tocardo claimed it as an important step for the global tidal energy sector.

The project consists of five T-2 tidal turbines, designed and supplied by Tocardo, in one of the sluice gates of the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier, with the potential of scaling up.

These turbines are installed on a single hydraulic lift frame designed, constructed and supplied by Huisman in late 2015. Commissioning was completed with commercial full operation commencing in August 2016.

Tocardo is fully owned by HydroWing Ltd. and QED Naval Ltd.

“At Tocardo we are looking forward to taking this unique project forward to the benefit of the local area in terms of jobs, supply chain development and making an impact to the net zero targets,” said Tocardo chief executive Andries van Unen.

“This exemplar project will be run as a R&D facility and shop window for similar global developments which provides significant export opportunities.

“When the installation was lowered back into the water last week and the turbines immediately started to generate power again, I personally felt very satisfied.

“By maintaining this unique power plant, we can continue to develop our power generating solutions under offshore conditions in a controlled environment, so that we can show customers what this technology is capable of.”

The company said the transaction’s timing was fortuitious with political attention in the Netherlands on potential energy from water projects, adding that it was expecting the Economic Affairs and Climate Minister Wiebes to finalise a roadmap to electricity from water by 2030 before the end of the year.

Dutch developers estimate the technical potential for tidal energy in the Netherlands at 150-250 MW, Tocardo added.

Tocardo said the Oosterschelde deal had taken significant effort including work put in behind the scenes by the Administrators Rensen Advocaten, Tocardo and Rijkswaterstaat, the operator of the Delta Works Barriers.

Tocardo also received support from the Dutch Marine Energy Centre (DMEC) in helping to present the case for preserving the project.