The 10MW tidal energy project is planned to be located in East Nusa Tenggara in the Indonesian archipelago.

HydroWing is the tidal energy division of Inyanga Marine Energy Group, based in the UK. PLN is the state-owned national power company in Indonesia and owns the national grid.

The HydroWing tidal solution includes a permanent gravity-based structure and a multi-rotor device designed to deliver redundancy and increase energy availability. The technology relies on a Tocardo turbine, which can be utilised in any source of flowing water.

A supporting structure sits on the seabed, under its own weight. The “wings” that hold the turbines are then lowered into position on this structure. The turbines are bi-directional, so they generate power as the tide comes in and as it goes out.

This follows on from a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2022 in which the two parties agreed to accelerate tidal energy in Indonesia through site identification, resource assessment and front-end engineering. The site at East Nusa Tenggara has now been selected following an assessment of different tidal energy locations all over the country.

“Indonesia is seen as a prime market for our innovative tidal energy technology,” Richard Parkinson, CEO of Inyanga Marine Energy Group, said. “Indonesia has amongst the best tidal potential in the world due to the throughflow of marine current from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. There is also a funnel effect between the islands of the archipelago, which strengthens the tidal energy potential still further. This pilot project at East Nusa Tenggara will be pivotal for us and our local partners to move rapidly towards significant commercial scale projects in the Indonesia archipelago.”

To develop the project at East Nusa Tenggara, the PLN Subholding will be responsible for activities including bathymetry, site survey, ADCP measurements and sediment samples, as well as conducting interconnection impact studies.

HydroWing will conduct a feasibility study, technology studies, project implementation schedules and O&M plans. The two parties will work jointly on the licensing process plan and conducting social and environmental studies.

Inyanga Marine Energy Group has two divisions – HydroWing, which focuses on tidal energy technology development, and Inyanga Maritime, which delivers offshore engineering and installation. The company aims to advance through to deployment of the innovative tidal energy converter, the HydroWing, to provide cost-effective, reliable, and predictable power to communities around the globe.

In September 2024, Inyanga Marine Energy Group was awarded 10MW for its tidal energy project at Morlais through Allocation Round 6 (AR6) of the UK government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme. This doubles the scale of their project, which uses its HydroWing technology to 20MW, building on its 10MW award in the previous allocation round. This allocation was the largest tidal stream project in the UK in the latest Contracts for Difference round. Inyanga Marine Energy Group has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Verdant Morlais Ltd to deliver a further 4.9MW tidal stream energy project at Morlais.

Earlier this week, Inyanga Marine Energy Group announced it is launching a crowdfunding round for HydroWing, in partnership with Crowdcube.