SeaGen passes critical milestone

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Offshore.no International » News » Renewables

Posted 24.03.2011 14:11:14 av John Bradbury

Bristol-based Marine Current Turbines has passed a crucial performance test with its SeaGen tidal turbine generator which could lead to major development of tidal energy technology.

After passing operational and performance tests laid down by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, MCTs 1.2 Megawatt SeaGen tidal turbine which has been operating in the narrows at Strangford Lough near Belfast in Northern Ireland since April 2008 could now qualify for further funding from the government’s Low Carbon Innovation Fund.

“The hope is that by passing the [performance] criteria it will help us in getting further support when the funding becomes available,” MCT spokesman Paul Taylor told www.offshore.no/International.

Brtain’s Low Carbon Innovation Fund replaces the Marine Renewables Deployment Fund which was set up in August 2004 with £42 million to support development of marine renewable energy technology and qualifying technologies were required to provide data on operational performance, reliability, costs and energy generation.

Stephen Wyatt from the Carbon Trust, which is a major shareholder in Marine Current Turbines noted: “We are delighted that MCT, a British company, has passed this important milestone. Support from the Carbon Trust has been critical in the company’s development to date. The marine sector has great prospects to deliver secure energy, new jobs and generate British exports as the technology and industry matures.”

And MCT’s chief executive Martine Wright added: “We are showing that tidal current energy has a contribution to make to the UK’s future energy mix, and importantly [in] laying the foundations for the development of a sizeable marine energy industry in this country: An ambition which is on the UK Government’s green growth agenda”

Britain’s wave and tidal stream energy demonstration scheme was set up by the MRDF back in May 2005 under the then Department of Trade and Industry and sought to ensure the construction and installation of grid-connected wave and tidal devices. The scheme required renewable energy projects to operate for an extended period, capturing operational and performance data including data on maintenance, energy capture and revenue generation data, and MCT’s SeaGen has now met those criteria.

Already MCT has plans in place to further deploy its technology offshore the UK: Off the north coast of Wales near Anglesey MCT is seeking consent for a 10 Megawatt SeaGen array in partnership with RWE Npower Renewables.

Work is also under way for deployment of another 100 MW SeaGen array offshore from County Antrim in Northern Ireland; also at Kyle Rhea in the Western Isles of Scotland by 2013 or 2014, and another at Brough Ness, on the southern Orkney Island of South Ronaldsay, northeast from John O’Groats which is slated to become operational between 2014 and 2020.

Last week tidal technology from Norway’s Hammerfest Strøm received a green light from the Scottish government for a 10 Megawatt tidal power array in the Sound of Islay off Scotland’s west coast, after an application by Scottish PowerRenwables

That project will use ten HS1000 tidal turbines developed by Hammerfest Strøm AS, which is part owned by Portugal’s Iberdrola - which also owns Scottish Power Renewables.

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