Atlantis raises $83m towards ‘world’s largest’ tidal energy plant

The world’s largest tidal-stream power plant is one step closer to being built after the Australian-founded and managed tidal turbine maker behind the project, Atlantis Resources, raised around $US83 million towards commencing construction.

The funds will be used to finance the installation of four 1.5MW turbines in Scotland’s Pentland Firth – a small portion of the 86MW planned for the project’s demonstration phase.

Atlantis says construction on the project, dubbed MeyGen, should start this year, with the first power expected to be delivered to the grid by 2016. The total first phase of the project – 61 turbines – is expected to provide enough electricity for 42,000 homes in Scotland.

Once complete, the project could reach a capacity of as much as 398MW, and may become the first commercial-scale tidal stream power facility operating in the world. It will include up to 269 turbines submerged on the seabed, generating enough energy for 175,000 homes in Scotland.

Atlantis, which moved to Singapore to better access finance, took over the project last November, after purchasing the outstanding shares from GDF Suez and Morgan Stanley, the investment bank which owns a majority stake in Atlantis. Atlantis already held a 10 per cent stake in the project.

In February this year, the now-Singapore based Atlantis raised nearly $US20 million through an initial share sale on London’s Alternative Investment Market.

This latest $83 million raised came from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, The Crown Estate and by Atlantis, the turbine maker said in an e-mailed statement.

Just last week, the company announced that it had awarded ABB the contract to install tidal power conversion and grid connection systems at the project.

“MeyGen will be the biggest tidal stream array in the world, providing enough electricity for 175,000 homes and 100 green jobs when created,” UK Energy Secretary Ed Davey said in a statement on Friday. “Wave and tidal power have the potential to provide more than 20 percent of the UK’s electricity needs.”

“There is clearly huge political support for the MeyGen project, as seen by the dominant role that public sector money is playing in this financing,” Angus McCrone, senior analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said on Friday by e-mail.

Total installations of tidal-stream facilities around the world are seen reaching about 148 megawatts by 2020, according to BNEF. The researcher on Aug. 14 revised down its original 167-megawatt forecast by 11 percent saying marine power projects were taking longer and costing more than expected.

Atlantis will supply one of the four turbines and Andritz Hydro Hammerfest, owned by Andritz Hydro GmbH, the remaining three. MeyGen has “hedged its bets” by choosing two different turbines, McCrone said.

“How those machines perform on-site will help determine who gets the later orders, and also how quickly (or slowly) later stages of the project can be rolled out,” he said.