(Photo Courtesy: Marine Current Turbines)

Marine Current Turbines (MCT) and its project partners Queen’s University Belfast, Mojo Maritime and Edinburgh University, have secured a grant of $389,000 from the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council to develop a fully submerged SeaGen tidal turbine that can be deployed in deep water sites where there are large tidal ranges or significant wave environments.
The project will be led by Marine Current Turbines and will build on the success of the company’s SeaGen tidal system which has been generating electricity into the grid since 2008.
The announcement of the new funding coincided with a visit to the SeaGen project, located in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough, by the UK Energy Minister, Charles Hendry.
The new funding from the Technology Strategy Board and the EPSRC is part of a $10.9m funding package awarded to nine wave and tidal stream research and development projects. The projects are focusing on the twin aims of driving down the cost of energy while improving the reliability and performance of wave and tidal stream energy devices. Some of the projects will look to enhance the performance of existing devices while others aim to develop novel, breakthrough concepts.
Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: “By developing a fully submerged device, we will be able to deploy our tidal stream technology in more areas, both in the UK and overseas which is an exciting prospect. The experience that we have gained with SeaGen’s deployment and commercial operation is a huge asset in taking forward the development of the next-generation technology, and we greatly welcome the support given to us and our partners by the Technology Strategy Board, the EPSRC and the UK Government.”



AWS Ocean Energy also received additional funding support to develop its new wave energy device. The company and its project partner, the University of Strathclyde, received $544,770 from the Technology Strategy Board, which is sponsored by the UK Government to promote and support innovation and technology.
The Technology Strategy Board funding follows the support given earlier this month to AWS Ocean Energy by the Scottish Government’s WATERS programme (Wave and Tidal Energy: Research, Development and Demonstration Support). Both funding streams will be used by AWS Ocean Energy to further develop its AWS-III device, a ring-shaped multi-cell surface-floating wave power system.
Simon Grey, Chief Executive of AWS Ocean Energy said: “This latest funding is very welcome as we continue to develop our AWS-III wave energy device. As with WATERS, our application for funding was approved after careful scrutiny by the Technology Strategy Board, and so it is another positive statement about our R&D work to date. Our trials on Loch Ness will restart in September for a 6 week period and thereafter a detailed assessment of the trial results will be undertaken before we start building and then deploy a full-scale version of one of the wave absorption cells.”
Iain Gray, Chief Executive of the Technology Strategy Board, said: “By 2050 we are going to have very different energy needs than we have today and we will be getting our energy from different sources. The UK is well placed to exploit wave and tidal stream energy resources with all of the coast line that we have, and it is expected this kind of technology will be an important part of the renewable energy mix needed in the future.