New wave of funding moves UK's first tidal farm a step nearer

British tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines (MCT) announced yesterday that it has raised £3.5m in a new funding round that will allow it to move forward with plans to deploy the UK's first commercial tidal energy farm over the next two years.

The funding round - which included investment from the Carbon Trust, Bank Invest, EDF Energy, High Tide and a group of private investors - represents a major breakthrough for MCT, which has been looking for the investment it needs to roll out a commercial deployment of its SeaGen tidal technology for much of this year.

A trial of the commercial scale device in Northern Ireland's Strangford Lough has already proved successful, with the system delivering over 350MW hours of power to the Irish grid in the six months it has been running.

MCT managing director Martin Wright told BusinessGreen.com that the fresh funding would allow the company to move forward with plans to install seven 1.5MW machines off the coast of Anglesey, North Wales during 2011.

"We have a number of partnerships to put in place but we now hope to develop the UK's first tidal farm within the next two years," he said, adding that the company was also applying for funding from the government's Marine Renewables Deployment Fund to support the project.

The company will now undertake moves to increase the amount of time its device in Strangford Lough operates to 24 hours a day.

Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay said that the government-backed company was committed to trying to bridge the funding gap currently faced by many promising marine energy firms. "The current economic climate has created difficulties for companies like MCT operating within a capital intensive sector, " he said. "We're delighted to be able to lead this important group of investors in providing funding to a key player in the UK's growing marine energy sector."

As MCT moves forward with its Angelsey project, it is also eyeing up similar projects in Canada after recently inking memorandas of understanding with Minas Basin Pulp and Power and BC Tidal Energy Corporation that could see the companies co-operate on potential projects in Nova Scotia and Vancouver, respectively.