Marine energy wet-mate connection system

Atlantis Operations (UK) Limited is developing a new version of its wet-mate connection system for tidal turbines, to make it applicable across the marine renewables industry. Atlantis has proved its Connection Management System, CMS, on its AR1500 turbine installed as part of the MeyGen Project, world's first megawatt-scale tidal array. The CMS makes all the electrical and control connections between the turbine and its subsea cable as the turbine is being lowered onto its foundation, making the turbine installation simple and quick. It significantly reduces the cost of deploying and retrieving the turbine, reduces the risks in the marine operations, and makes interventions possible in a wider range of weather and sea states. Other devices use dry-mate connectors, which introduce extra operations into deployments involving cable handling, additional vessels, divers or ROVs. The CMS on the AR1500 relies on its integration with Atlantis' unique 'stab' system that locates the turbine on its foundation to passively bring the wet-mates together. Other marine energy converters do not have this feature, so the project is to make an actuated version of the CMS that is more generally applicable and that Atlantis sees becoming a standard in the industry and a product that can be sold to other companies. Atlantis is already in discussion with project owners and other tidal turbine manufacturers about supplying the system. The new CMS will reduce the operating costs of marine energy arrays, promoting a new renewable energy source and helping to move towards net zero emissions. Marine renewables are at an early stage of development, and to be installed on a larger scale it is important to bring down their cost of energy to levels that are comparable with other renewables. In this it lines up with the UK governments Net Zero Ambition and Clean Growth Strategy.