Case Study: Minesto - Connecting a Tidal Kite

Minesto is a leading tidal energy company developing a novel subsea kite to capture renewable energy from the ocean’s powerful tidal currents.

To meet the challenge of deploying and recovering this technology at such energetic sites, Minesto contracted Quoceant to design a subsea connection system.  The project kicked off in 2019 and two units have since been deployed at Minesto’s test site off the Faroe Islands. In this blog post, we check in with Minesto to see how it worked out.

Johannes Huffmeier, Chief Operations Officer at Minesto, "Five years of testing, and the system designed and delivered by Quoceant remains reliable and robust. This is a harsh ocean environment with high currents, so marine operations need to be completed quickly and reliably between tides. With this design we can install within a few minutes of arriving on site and recover in a few minutes. The system has operated flawlessly over many installation and removal cycles."

Video: Minesto deploy their tidal kite technology using Quoceant's designed connection system. Footage courtesy of Minesto.

A Dual-Function Engineering Solution

Quoceant’s quick connection solution for Minesto provides both mechanical and electrical connection between the kite, its seabed-mounted foundation, and the subsea power cable in a single operation using commercially available wet-mate technology.

Quoceant, working closely with marine operations specialists successfully took the project from initial concept through detailed design, procurement, build, rigorous qualification testing, and in situ operational support.

Richard Yemm, Quoceant Director and Lead Engineer for the project, “It was very satisfying to deliver on this challenging remit. I went offshore to assist with installing the infrastructure and then witnessed the first kite installation and removal cycle from the ROV on the support vessel. The system functioned exactly as designed, with the kite installed and connected to the grid in minutes and recovered just as quickly.”

The connection system enables repeated connection and disconnection operations, allowing the recovery of the kite for inspection and maintenance. Crucially, the system is designed for rapid operation using non specialist vessels and doesn’t require the use of divers.  The entire marine operation can be completed swiftly, leveraging short weather windows—a critical necessity when working in the high-current, challenging conditions of tidal energy sites.

Image: ROV footage is streamed live to the installation vessel giving visual confirmation of the successful installation of the kite. Image courtesy of Minesto.

The system's proven success led Minesto to order a second unit from Quoceant in 2021 for use with a second kite at the same site.

Minesto’s project in the Faroe Islands has allowed them to prove out their technology and they now plan to install a tidal array at nearby site Hestfjord, initially with six Dragon 12X-kites, to give a total capacity of 10 MW. This will be the first step on their way to a 200 MW build-out.