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£1.5m grant towards the next phase of MeyGen project


By Gordon Calder

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MeyGen will benefit from the Scottish Government's Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund.
MeyGen will benefit from the Scottish Government's Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund.

THE company behind the pioneering tidal energy scheme in the Pentland Firth has been awarded a grant of just over £1.5 million towards the cost of the next phase of the project.

Simec Atlantis, the parent company of MeyGen, was awarded the money from the Scottish Government's Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund to develop a subsea hub in the Inner Sound between Stroma and the Caithness coast.

The £10 million fund helps support the commercial deployment of tidal energy in Scottish waters through driving innovation and a reduction in the cost of electricity generation.

The £1.545 million will be used to design and build the subsea hub and associated infrastructure which will deliver cost reductions and enhance efficiency by connecting multiple turbines to a single export cable. Once proven, the hub will be made available to project developers to help to achieve cost-competitive commercial deployment across the sector, the company says.

As a result of the award, the Atlantis Turbine and Engineering Services (ATES) division will be awarded a £2.4 million contract to construct the hub which is expected to be installed later this year. Offshore construction work on the project is due to start in October or November, with electricity being generated towards the end of 2020.

Atlantis chief executive Tim Cornelius said: "We are very grateful and appreciative of the Scottish Government’s continued support for tidal stream energy by awarding this grant to help fund MeyGen’s ongoing expansion. The first of its kind globally, the new subsea hub represents a significant milestone in the cost reduction path that tidal power is currently on and also has exciting application in the floating offshore wind market.

"The subsea hub we have designed and developed is a key part of our overall cost reduction strategy for tidal power generation. This hub will also have direct application for other forms of marine energy such as floating offshore wind and wave energy.

"We are very proud to be taking the lead in realising the full potential of our oceans’ energy, delivering a cleaner energy future."

Mr Cornelius paid tribute to the "dedicated marine energy team for their hard work bringing this project to fruition".

He added: " The next phase of MeyGen, which will supply ocean energy to a large data centre, requires us to deliver cost-competitive energy to our future customers. The use of subsea hubs to reduce the number of export cables required to deliver this power from the 40 two-megawatt turbines we plan to install is central to our plans.

"This is a wonderful development for the MeyGen project, our ATES division and the tidal power sector in the UK."

The company plans to build the world’s first ocean-powered data centre near the MeyGen site.


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