Inyanga Marine Energy Group has successfully finished hydrodynamic testing for its Passive Pitch Unit, a key component of the HydroWing tidal energy technology. This comes after HydroWing was awarded the UK’s largest tidal energy project under the government’s Contracts for Difference scheme, during Allocation Round 6. The company is set to deliver a 20MW tidal energy project at Morlais in Wales, alongside other global projects.
The testing took place at the Kelvin Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.
“These exciting test results mark a major milestone in our mission to deliver low-cost, efficient, and reliable tidal energy arrays,” said Richard Parkinson, CEO of Inyanga Marine Energy Group. “Our engineering team has excelled in delivering a game-changing turbine and blade solution which doubles annual energy production, making our Morlais 20MW project highly investable.”
The results confirmed that the innovative blade rotor on HydroWing’s tidal device can automatically adjust its pitch using a self-regulating system. This breakthrough is the result of two years of development by the HydroWing R&D team.
“With this new pitch regulation system, the blade rotors can now scale to twice the swept area, while ensuring safety and efficiency, even in harsh ocean conditions,” Parkinson explained. “This technology opens up new possibilities for large-scale marine energy generation and future innovations. The passive pitch mechanism not only regulates energy output but also protects the device from adverse conditions like wave loadings, grid loss, and storm surges. Passive pitch offers reliability and cost advantages over active pitch while increasing energy yield.”
The project is supported by the IDCORE Programme, through which HydroWing has engaged two engineers working on their doctoral theses.
George Dadd, Lead Turbine Engineer at HydroWing, stated: “The tests on the passive pitch technology have behaved exactly as calculated, validating the ‘proof of concept’. We will now continue the validation process with a full-scale test rig.”
