MeyGen has been awarded a capital grant of £10 million by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Meygen will use the grant to further develop its Demonstration Array via the Marine Energy Accelerator Developer (MEAD) process which started in March 2012.
The MeyGen project is the largest tidal energy development in Europe to seek “consent to build” from a government. The project is located in the Inner Sound in the Pentland Firth off the northern coast of Caithness, home to one of Europe’s largest tidal stream resources. MeyGen plans to build the project in two phases. In the first phase, which ultimately aims to produce 86MW, MeyGen plans to start construction of the Demonstration Array of approximately six tidal energy turbines in 2014/15.
Dan Pearson, CEO of MeyGen Ltd. commented: “We are delighted to be awarded this prestigious capital grant following a thorough assessment process, and we applaud DECC for its continued support of the Marine Energy sector. The grant is a ringing endorsement of our project and will be used across all construction aspects of delivering the Demonstration Phase.”
[mappress] Press release, February 27, 2013; Image: meygen