Cape Sharp Tidal Project

November 2016 - In early October the BBC Emerald, a heavy lift vessel from the BBC Chartering arrived at Pictou shipyard to load Cape Sharp Tidal's 2nd Turbine and its foundation for a final destination of Saint John. The BBC Emerald was chartered in for the project by Hughes Offshore and Shipping Services Inc. to carry out the project for Cape Sharp Tidal, a joint venture created by Emera and OpenHydro. Cape Sharp Tidal planned the install of the pair of 2MW tidal turbines in the Bay of Fundy to be the first grid connected marine turbines installed in the Bay of Fundy.

The 320 mts Turbine no. 2 as well as its foundation (444 mts) were loaded at its fabrication yard in Pictou. The subsea base was brought alongside in floating condition and loaded from the water to deck of BBC Emerald having an overhang of 4 m to starboard and 13 m to port side. This made the discharge of the SSB to shore in Saint John even more challenging considering an impressive local tide range of 9m.

Later on the BBC HLV met the installation barge "Scotia Tide" and removed turbine no. one from the installation barge to the deck of the HLV for further transport and discharge to shore. The turbine had to be lifted vertically out of its foundation stanchions and turned into a horizontal orientation for stowage on deck.

Finally the 2nd turbine was discharged to the "Scotia Tide" for final installation scope.

The whole job had been well planned in advance including a lot of engineering hours spent by BBC Chartering. BBC met the expected time frame and budget and performed this job to customer's full satisfaction.