MeyGen tidal stream project receives £14m for next construction phase

Stroma Tidal Power Limited confirms investment to install a further four tidal turbines

The MeyGen project, the world’s largest free stream tidal power project, will move into its next phase and begin construction of four more 1.5MW tidal turbines, following confirmation of £14 million (€16.8 million) investment.

The investment comes from Stroma Tidal Power Limited (STPL), the wholly owned project company behind the next phase of the development at the MeyGen site. STPL carried out a competitive tender process for the project construction contracts which has led to the investment decision and enables the project to proceed to construction in 2017.

This next phase of the MeyGen site development is regarded as an important step in demonstrating progress to a lower cost of energy for tidal stream. It will see the construction of four SeaGen20 1.5MW subsea turbines that will have larger diameter rotors to capture more energy from the tidal flow, as well as optimised turbine power ratings. This will take the MeyGen project to 12MW of capacity.

Furthermore, Project Stroma will use drilled foundation structures rather than the material intensive gravity foundations used in MeyGen Phase 1A.  The turbines will be provided by Marine Current Turbines, which was purchased by Atlantis from Siemens in 2015 in an all-share deal.

Tim Cornelius, chief executive of Atlantis, said: “The lessons we have learned from Phase 1A and the confidence it has given to both us and our supply chain allow us to deliver significant improvements and refinements in this next phase. We believe these improvements will yield more electricity for each pound of investment and represent a material step down our cost reduction curve.  STPL has been working towards this investment decision in line with the specified programme for the NER300 fund, which has awarded £14m (€16.8 million) of grant support to Project Stroma.”

Installation of the first four 1.5MW turbines that make up Phase 1A began in September 2016. The turbines stand 15m tall, boast blades of 18m in diameter and weigh almost 200 tonnes each. Three of the units were built by Andritz and the fourth is a AR1500 Atlantis turbine.