The Crown Estate today confirmed that Scotrenewables Tidal Power, Minesto and the Isle of Wight have been given the rights to develop tidal energy at three sites around the UK.
The licence awards are part of The Crown Estate’s fourth application window in its leasing process, and will also be considered for the Scottish Government’s £10 million Saltire Prize.
Scotrenewables Tidal Power plans to develop a 30 MW tidal stream array in Lashy Sound, in the Orkney Islands using technology tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) since March 2011.
Swedish company Minesto, meanwhile, hope to follow up testing of its SeaKite tidal technology over the last couple of years with the deployment of a 3 kW, three-quarter scale Deep Green Ocean Kite prototype in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland.
Minesto, which has already secured a consent for the project from Northern Ireland’s Department of the Environment, wants to test the new prototype for two years to make progress towards a commercial device.
And in the far south, the Isle of Wight Council are hoping to set up a managed testing facility, the Solent Ocean Energy Centre, near St. Catherine’s Point to provide a site for tidal stream developers to trial devices.
The plans for the £3 million test centre are part of the island’s sustainability initiative, Eco Islands, to become energy self-sufficient.
The three organisations will now be able to move ahead to the next stage of development, undertaking local consultations, surveys and obtaining planning consent.
“The awards take the total number of UK wave and tidal sites under development or operation to 41,” says Paul Catterall, wave and tidal development manager at The Crown Estate. “[We are] continuing to support growth of the emerging industry and we will be announcing next steps in leasing wave and tidal sites in due course.”
For further information:
www.thecrownestate.co.uk/
www.scotrenewables.com/
www.minesto.com/
www.iwight.com/
Related stories:
Atlantis completes onshore tests of tidal turbine at Narec (15-Oct)
UK waters hold potential for 118 GW of wave and tidal capacity (12-Oct)
UK Crown Estate grants lease for Welsh tidal project (2-May)
UK wave and tidal energy “on cusp” of commercialisation, says report (16-Mar)
Article source: http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/5541/
