Europe's Leading Tidal Energy Project Powers Up

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The leading tidal energy project in Europe will be fully commissioned in the U.K. in the coming weeks.

Developer Atlantis Resources Limited (Edinburgh, Scotland) said that commissioning is underway at the 6-megawatt (MW) Meygen project in Scotland's Pentland Firth. The company has reinstalled the fourth and final 1.5-MW tidal turbine, which will allow the first phase of the project to operate at its full 6-MW capacity "generating full Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) and power revenues", Atlantis said.

The project's total production has exceeded 2.6 gigawatt-hours (GWh), with more than 800 megawatt-hours sent to the grid in September. The project will be capable of powering 2,600 homes when fully operational and is expected to operate for 25 years.

"The success of MeyGen, the world's largest tidal stream project, firmly positions the U.K. as the leader of an industry which could provide sufficient affordable, secure, predictable and clean power to meet 20% of the U.K.'s future electricity need," commented Tim Cornelius, chief executive officer of Atlantis Resources. "We have asked the government to enter into a bilateral negotiation for 80 MW of capacity to allow us to proceed with the construction of Phase 1C of the MeyGen project without further delay. Tidal stream power costs are reducing all the time, with a strong trajectory towards achieving parity with established renewables such as offshore wind."

The wave and tidal energy sector has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years, due largely to a lack of financial backing. Pioneering companies like Pelamis Wave Power (Edinburgh, Scotland) went under in 2014, leaving a number of promising commercial-scale projects unfinished. For additional information, see November 25, 2014, article - Scotland Pledges More Wave Energy Support.

In the past year, however, there has been renewed interest in the sector, particularly with the proposed development of massive tidal walls. The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon in Wales will be able to generate up to 500 GWh of electricity annually, enough to power 121,000 homes. It is seen as a "pathfinder" project that could lead to the construction of five much larger lagoons that could be capable of supplying 8% of the U.K.'s total electricity over a period of about 120 years, according to developer Tidal Lagoon Power Limited. For additional information, see June 17, 2015, article -World's First Tidal Lagoon Green Lit for Wales.

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