Marine Current Turbines, the UK tidal energy technology company, has won EnergyOcean International’s 2011 Technology Pioneer Award for successfully demonstrating and running their commercial-scale SeaGen tidal technology. The award will be received by Martin Wright, Chief Executive of Marine Current Turbines (MCT), at the EnergyOcean International 2011 Conference in Portland, Maine, USA next month (June 15th).

The 1.2MW SeaGen, located in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough, is the only tidal current turbine anywhere in the world to feed power regularly into a local electricity grid on a commercial basis. It has been operating since 2008 and has the capacity to generate electricity for the equivalent of 1500 homes.

Drawing upon the operating experience of SeaGen, MCT’s plan is to develop a number of tidal arrays in British and overseas waters, and have a suite of tidal technologies that can be deployed in various depths of water. Martin Wright, CEO of MCT said: “We are very excited that our hard work in pioneering our SeaGen technology has been recognized internationally and we are thrilled and determined to remain at the vanguard of this new energy revolution. Tidal energy provides clean, renewable and predictable energy and when it becomes truly commercial, will provide new source of manufacturing jobs and a supply chain to match. We know that the US, the UK and the Canadian governments, among others, recognize the importance of supporting our industry.”


Representatives of the company have already met with local landowners to discuss their outline plans, and will issue a ‘scoping report seeking views of statutory and local consultants on the draft proposal. The company will undertake extensive environmental monitoring and consultation before formally submitting an application to Marine Scotland later this year.

Aquamarine Power has secured two leases. One is a 10MW demonstration lease for a site between Siadar and Fivepenny, known as the Galson site; the other is a 30MW lease granted under the Crown Estate’s recent ‘Saltire Prize’ leasing round – which offers an area of search between Bàgh Dhail Beag and Tràigh Shanndaigh.

The company will take guidance and work closely with local communities and stakeholders to identify the most appropriate 30MW site within the search area. Once this has been identified and Aquamarine Power has secured all permissions and consents required, they will seek a formal lease with the Crown Estate. The lease area will be known as the North West Lewis site. Following this the rest of the search area will become available to other potential developers seeking a seabed lease.

The development has the potential to see up to 40 Oyster near shore devices installed across both locations on an approximate 2km stretch of coast. The proposed sites would have a total installed capacity of 40MW and could provide enough energy to power 38,000 homes.

Aquamarine Power installed its first Oyster at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney in 2009 and is about to install its second full scale device – known as Oyster 2 – in Orkney this summer.
The company has officially registered its intent to use the Lewis site to compete for the Scottish Government’s Saltire Prize, a £10 million global prize for the wave or tidal technology which generates the greatest volume of electrical output over 100GWh over a continuous two year period using only the power of the sea.

”Wave energy offers great potential to the Western Isles,” says company CEO Martin McAdam. “As the lead industry partner alongside Lews Castle College in the Hebridean Marine Energy Futures project we can see clearly the economic and social benefits that could be generated in the Western Isles through a thriving marine energy industry.

Dr. Neil Finlayson, Senior Researcher at Lews Castle College, University of the Highlands and Islands said: “The opening up of the coastlines of the Outer Hebrides to wave energy developments gives the opportunity to create economic growth on a considerable scale in the area. As the project leader of the Hebridean Marine Energy Futures Project we are very supportive of sustainable wave energy developments, and are working together with technology providers across industry and top class Scottish academic groups to characterise the marine environment and investigate how energy outputs can be maximised.”

Visit www.aquamarinepower.com

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