Renetec sees tidal power project as start of wave

Korea’s Renetec, managing a 1 trillion won ($917 million) project to generate power from tidal currents, said it will raise as much as 30 percent of required funds in equity and the rest through project financing.

“Our equity partners are being asked to get a certain percentage of their energy from renewables so there won’t be any challenge to raise 200 billion won to 300 billion won from them,” Chief Executive Officer Park Jong-seon, 52, said in an interview in Seoul. “For the debt portion, we’ll start fund-raising in May 2014” as most funds will be needed starting 2015 and terms could be better then.

Renetec highlights a push by renewable energy companies to tap larger industrial groups for funds. Backers of Renetec’s project include?Korea?Electric Power Corporation; Hyundai Amco, a construction unit of Hyundai Motor Group; and the local governments of South Jeolla and Jin Island.

Globally, 16 tidal projects of more than 200 megawatts are in development using competing technologies, Milo Sjardin, the Singapore-based head of Asia-Pacific analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an e-mail.

“Location is naturally important if you’re talking about tidal, but once you have that as well as government support, you still need a good, reliable technology and an experienced project developer that can execute the project well,” he said.

Renetec estimates its 200-megawatt tidal project some 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Seoul will be the world’s first and biggest of its kind. The park will use tidal currents to generate power for as many as 180,000 homes when the second phase of installation is completed in 2016.

Seoul-based Renetec set up a venture in 2007 with Voith Hydro Holding GmbH., the world’s largest water-power-generating group, to produce tidal turbines. The Wan Island, Korea-based venture is set to install a one-megawatt prototype tidal current turbine off the U.K. coast in February before manufacturing one for the Korean project, Park said.

Renetec, established in 2001, plans to almost double its workforce next year, Park said, adding that an initial public offering is planned for?Korea?in 2015. Renetec aims to obtain related licenses and approvals for the 200-megawatt tidal project by early 2014, Park said.

The company plans to ask the government to consider offering incentives for power from tidal projects, said Park, owner of a 25 percent stake in Renetec.

Korea?introduced a renewable-energy quota this year requiring that the nation’s 14 generators boost renewable sources to 2 percent. The mandatory quota for the proportion of electricity generated by renewables will be increased to 10 percent in 2022.

“Once we finish the project, we will go to overseas markets with that track record,” Park said. “We are already tapping potential locations in Asia for tidal parks.”

The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand would be the best potential destinations in Asia for tidal parks, he said.

Bloomberg