Printer Friendly
Email a Friend
New Funding Brings Tidal Stream Energy Project Closer
01 May 2005
Bristol UK based Marine Current Turbines has received £3.85m from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to help fund their SeaGen tidal energy project. The grant to Sea Generation Ltd , a wholly owned subsidiary of Marine Current Turbines , will go towards developing and testing the device for extracting energy from ocean currents. The new grant funding was announced by Energy Minister Mike O'Brien at the British Wind Energy Association 's recent annual marine conference.
The grant will facilitate the development and demonstration of a commercial prototype twin rotor tidal current turbine rated at 1MW. The project follows the installation by the company of the world's first full scale tidal stream energy prototype off Lynmouth, North Devon in June 2003. This 300kW unit known as the Seaflow Project has now been operational for nearly two years and was also developed with DTI and EU assistance.
The DTI announced in January of this year that up to £42m from the Marine Renewable Deployment Fund would be allocated towards supporting a number of large scale pre-commercial demonstration wave and tidal farms. Support under the scheme will be a combination of grant and revenue support, which could see the first large scale marine generation farms feeding the national grid within three years.
The UK Government already offers significant support for renewable and low carbon energy sources comprising capital grants and R&D totalling some £500 million. Wave and tidal energy development will also benefit from the Renewables Obligation, which ensures all electricity suppliers produce a specified and increasing amount of energy from renewable sources.
Commenting on the latest DTI grant, Marine Current Turbines managing director Martin Wright said, 'The SeaGen Project is probably the most critical stage of the technical development programme as it is the precursor to the first generation of commercial technology. This funding in partnership with that from our investors sends a very important, positive signal to project developers and supply chain partners. Tidal stream energy is much closer, and this award will undoubtedly accelerate its commercial deployment.'
Images for this article - click to enlarge
All images copyright © Mercator Media 2008
Related products
For more information on products mentioned within this article visit
