Further funding for MeyGen tidal power

Atlantis Resources has secured a £17.6m Horizon 2020 grant from the European Commission – allowing the company to proceed with construction of Phase 1B of its MeyGen tidal power project, the company says.

Phase 1A, a 6MW tidal power turbine, began delivering electricity to the National Grid in Scotland from the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth in November last year. Installation of a second 6MW tidal turbine will begin this year, completing the first phase of the overall project. 

According to Atlantis, construction of the second turbine, called the DEMOTIDE project, will serve to demonstrate the viability of drilled foundations and larger rotor blades for reducing risk and costs in tidal power. Ultimately, the aim is to reach commercial parity with off-shore wind to secure further investment. The Pentland Firth site has a seabed lease for nearly 400MW of installed tidal power capacity. 

Atlantis CEO, Tim Cornelius, said: “The DEMOTIDE project is the next significant step in delivering cost effective, reliable tidal stream generation for Europe.  MeyGen is the world’s most high profile tidal stream project and we are delighted to be working with the European Commission and this world leading consortium of marine renewable energy experts to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of tidal power knowledge creation.

"This project will help the tidal stream industry demonstrate reductions in the price per unit of electricity by increasing the energy yield per pound of investment.  DEMOTIDE will set tidal on a path to cost parity with offshore wind by 2020.”

The DEMOTIDE consortium consists of the Atlantis owned technology supplier Marine Current Turbines, DEME Blue Energy, Belgium's GeoSea, the French engineering firm INNOSEA and Queen’s University Belfast. Atlantis has teams in Edinburgh, on site at Nigg Energy Park in Invergordon and an engineering team in Bristol.

INNOSEA Marine Engineering CEO, Hakim Mouslim, said: “MeyGen has set the pace for commercial tidal power plants development and we are eager to use our engineering experience for the next phase of this world leading tidal stream project. INNOSEA will be bringing additional engineering and operational support strength to the DEMOTIDE consortium with an objective of making tidal energy costs more competitive within the offshore renewables market.”