SIMEC Atlantis Energy Limited (Atlantis) has announced that the MeyGen Plc has been awarded a £1.545 million grant from the Scottish Government’s Saltire Tidal Energy Fund.
The Saltire Tidal Energy Fund is a £10 million fund set up to support the commercial deployment of tidal energy generation in Scottish waters.
Atlantis, the parent company of MeyGen, has said that the funds will go towards the build of the largest tidal stream power project in the world.
The firm added that the funding will be used to design, procure, install, connect and commission a subsea hub and associated subsea connection infrastructure. Atlantis said the hub will allow for ‘rapid’ and ‘automatic’ connection and disconnection of power and communication infrastructure offshore without any intervention.
Delivery and installation of the subsea hub will take place at the MeyGen project site in Pentland Firth, with it being expected to be installed later in 2020.
Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis, commented, “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.
“I would also like to personally thank our dedicated marine energy team for their hard work bringing this project to fruition. The next phase of MeyGen, which will supply ocean energy to a large data centre to be built in Scotland, requires us to deliver cost competitive energy to our future customers and the use of subsea hubs to reduce the number of export cables required to deliver this power from the 40 x 2MW 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.”
