The SeaGen tidal energy turbine has achieved and passed government operating performance criteria for the UK’s emerging tidal & wave energy technologies.
The 1.2MW SeaGen is the world’s only commercial scale tidal current turbine that is generating power into an electricity grid. The first device is operating successfully in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland.
A number are planned for other parts of the British Isles, including in Scotland.
According to the device’s designer, Marine Current Turbines (MCT), this is the first tidal or wave energy converter to achieve this milestone, set by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to qualify for its Marine Renewables Deployment Fund (MRDF).
By passing this milestone, independently assessed by AEA Technology on behalf of DECC, Marine Current Turbines (MCT) expects that funding support for the company’s first demonstrator tidal array will come from the government’s Low Carbon Innovation Fund or an equivalent government clean-tech funding stream, now that the £42million MRDF (Marine Renewables Development Fund) is to be abolished.
Martin Wright, chief executive of Marine Current Turbines, said: “Once again MCT has set an industry benchmark with its SeaGen tidal technology. SeaGen was the first of its scale to be deployed anywhere in the world, and the first tidal system in the UK to receive ROCs (renewables obligation certificates). We are showing that tidal current energy has a contribution to make to the UK’s future energy mix.”
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