Island Tidal Power Project Cash Boost

by Geoff Williams
(North Wales)

Marine Current Turbines (MCT), which hopes to build a tidal power farm near Skerries off Anglesey, has recieved a £3.5 million capital investment boost from a group led by the Carbon Trust.

MCT has formed a development company with npower renewables called SeaGen Wales Limited, and the aim is to site up to seven 1.5MW tidal turbines off North West Anglesey to capture trhe strong tides running throught the Langdon ridge.

The company is likely to use some of this capital injection to enable full deployment of its ground breaking 1.2 MW tidal project in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, which is now generating power, as well as helping start the Anglesey programme.

MCT Managing Director Martin Wright welcomes this vote of confidence in the company by the Carbon Trust, and believes this move illustrates MCT's leading role in the successful design, deployment and operation of a full scale tidal energy system.

When preparation work finally gets underway near the Skerries off Anglesey, the developers SeaGen Wales Limitied will benefit from the close proximity of excellent harbour facilities and communication infrastructure at Holyhead Port. There is also the matter of a nearby connection to the National Grid.

We now wait for a succesful outcome to a formal planning application to Anglesey County Council so that the tidal farm could perhaps be generating power as soon as 2011.

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