SeaGen tidal turbine passes UK criteria

By Renewable Energy Focus staff

The criteria have been set by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) for its £42 million Marine Renewables Deployment Fund (MRDF), which has now been scrapped.

MCT says that it now expects that funding support for the company’s first demonstrator tidal array will be forthcoming from the Government’s Low Carbon Innovation Fund or an equivalent Government clean-tech funding stream.

Martin Wright, CEO of Marine Current Turbines, says: “Whilst we are very pleased with SeaGen’s performance, we are drawing on our experience over the past two years to improve its capabilities. Within the next two years, we plan to have a range of tidal technologies for deployment in various depths of water and in different geographical locations so we can meet the needs of our customers in the UK and overseas.”

MCT plans to deploy four tidal farms in UK waters by the end of the decade as well as deploy SeaGen in Nova Scotia, Canada. MCT’s first tidal farms in UK waters are earmarked for Anglesey (North Wales) and Kyle Rhea in Scotland’s Western Isles.