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Subhub Community Demonstrator in Yarmouth Harbour
QED Naval developed a tidal project as part of the Interreg Tidal Stream Industry Energiser (TIGER) project. The project is located between Sconce Point and Black Rock near the western entrance to The Solent strait and was intended to validate the performance of QED Naval's Subhub Community Demonstrator (Subhub-CD) platform mounted with three of Tocardo's T1 tidal turbines (for an installed capacity of 250 kW) over a broad range of weather conditions.
The Subhub tidal platform is a submersible, gravity-based foundation used to support an array of tidal turbines through life. It integrates the whole tidal energy plant at the quayside, where everything is commissioned and tested in a safe, accessible environment. Subhub is then used as a transportation barge to deploy tidal equipment straight to site. In a single offshore operation the Subhub, along with turbines, is installed in a quick and easy ballasting process, using its unique submerged stability characteristics to install itself on the seabed. It then de-ballasts further to adopt its required operating condition. The hydrodynamically designed hull form accelerates flows to tidal turbines, to extract on average 47% more energy from sites. Maintenance and decommissioning is a simple case of deballasting Subhub to bring it back to the surface.
Starting on April 2021, QED Naval performed a 90-day site characterization near Yarmouth Harbour. Shortly after, the Subhub-CD, which had been previously tested at another location and became known as Kraken, was refitted with the T1 turbines and towed to the project location. During the course of the project, QED Naval held two separate crowd funding campaigns for supplementary funds to complete the deployment. The first campaign launched in 2021 targeted to raise 430,000 USD but exceed its target at approximately 730,000 USD. The Second campaign launched in 2022 aimed to raise 620,000 USD through investor crowdfunding and reached 1,850,000 USD.
As of 2023, TIGER published a progress report noting that QED Naval was still operating the Subhub-CD in The Solent. After completing its activities in The Solent, the device is planned for redeployment at the Moralis commercial project site.
Platform Manufacturer
Additional Information
Project Status
Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?
Active
Project Life Cycle
Project Progress through life cycle:
- Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment
- Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active
- Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water
- Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations
- Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water
Operational
Max Rated Power Capacity
The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.
.25 MW
Operational Start Year
July 2023
Project Start Year
2019
Energy Resource
- Tidal
Project Scale
Full-scale
Number of Devices
3
Grid Connectivity
Not Grid Connected
Waterbody
The Solent, Yarmouth Harbour, Isle of Wight, England
Site Characteristics
Geographic characterization for the project location:
- Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land
- Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary
- Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water
- Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land
- River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water
Constricted Channel
Country
United Kingdom
Environmental Details
Last Modified
9 June 2025
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Citation Formats
“Subhub Community Demonstrator in Yarmouth Harbour.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Subhub_Community_Demonstrator_in_Yarmouth_Harbour. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.
Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Subhub Community Demonstrator in Yarmouth Harbour." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Subhub_Community_Demonstrator_in_Yarmouth_Harbour.
