Orcades Marine has been providing marine advisory and installation support with sister company Aquatera on location in a remote part of Indonesia.

Green Forest Product & Tech (GFPT), and its exclusive supplier PT Bintuni Utama Murni Wood Industries (PT BUMWI), have together with the group of international specialists installed SIT 250 tidal turbine at PT BUMWI’s wood chip factory located in West Papua, Indonesia.

An international team comprising OceanPixel, Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N), Schottel Hydro from Germany as the provider of the tidal turbine, and marine energy operations specialists Aquatera from Scotland provided the expertise to enable this deployment.

Engineers and researchers from ERI@N supported the design work with a number of analyses which helped to confirm that the operating conditions and proposed equipment were compatible, Schottel Hydro informed.

The turbine is suspended below a floating barge, while the cable is suspended in the air from driven piles, a method that suited local conditions and resources, according to Schottel Hydro.

“This endeavor to introduce marine renewable energy on a logging site plays well with our commitment to sustainable carbon-neutral forest management,” Muljadi Tantra, Deputy Managing Director of GFPT explained.

Ralf Starzmann, Sales Director of Schottel Hydro, said: “We are excited to be part of the first grid connected tidal turbine deployment in South East Asian waters. This project is a stepping stone for our industry.”

The team devised and executed a number of innovative approaches utilizing local resources whenever possible to enable the completion of the project in 12 months.

The initiative was launched by GFPT, and PT BUMWI, with the long-term objective to significantly reduce the dependency on fossil fuel while tapping on the available local natural resources.