Atlantis Resources is undergoing talks for constructing a new marine energy farm that would be producing both wind and tidal power.
The company is conducting talks with suppliers of transmission components to discuss cabling and converters including a feasibility study for creating the project from the very beginning or adding its own tidal turbines onto an existing offshore wind farm.
Atlantis believes that by combining wind turbines with tidal turbines projects construction, maintenance and operating costs would be reduced as well as impacts on the marine environment. A committee of MPs has urged the government to boost its support for wave and tidal power so that the UK could retain its global leading position in the market. The first tidal farms are expected to generate electricity at around 29-33p/kWh, however the MPs have stressed the production objective should be set at 14p/kWh by 2020.
Atlantis Resources is currently repositioning its 1MW AR1000 tidal turbine from Orkney to the National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth for further testing, and is designated to supply the majority of the 400 turbines for the MeyGen project set to provide 400MW of capacity from one of the fastest-flowing areas of the Pentland Firth by the end of the decade.
[mappress] Offshore Wind Staff, February 22, 2012; Image: Atlantis Resources