Atlantis, Lockheed Martin Partner Up to Deliver Commercial Scale Tidal Energy

Atlantis Resources Corporation has yesterday announced a new global partnership with Lockheed Martin.

Having already worked closely together on a number of projects, the two companies have now signed an agreement covering a worldwide systems integration alliance, as well as design and engineering services, which will initially support the development and delivery of Atlantis’ new AR1500 turbine system. Concurrently with the agreement, Atlantis and Lockheed Martin also signed a contract for the AR1500 turbine design and engineering services. The agreement also provides for Lockheed Martin investment in tidal energy technology and joint projects through design, component development and systems integration services.

Included within the agreement is the design and demonstration of the first Atlantis 1.5 megawatt AR1500 turbine nacelle, to be deployed at the company’s Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) berth. Atlantis and Lockheed Martin have collaborated on the project since 2011, with Lockheed Martin to provide engineering design elements, procurement of major components, systems integration and testing of the turbine. Atlantis received a $5 million grant for the project from the Sustainable Development Technologies Canada fund in February of this year and is currently working towards deployment in 2015.

The two companies are also working together in the delivery of the Energy Technologies Institute TEC Demonstrator programme, aimed at bringing a step-change reduction in the cost of deploying tidal turbines in commercial arrays.

Additionally, the agreement will support the future delivery of Atlantis turbines to the MeyGen project in the Pentland Firth, Scotland. The MeyGen joint venture with Morgan Stanley and GDF Suez, is the world’s largest tidal stream project under development and received final planning consent from regulator Marine Scotland earlier this month.

Commenting on the announcement, Tim Cornelius CEO of Atlantis Resources said: “This is an important day in the history of Atlantis. Having worked with Lockheed Martin on numerous projects in the past, I am very pleased to today be able to announce that they will now provide their engineering and design services for our new AR1500 turbine and will be our global systems integration partner going forward.”

“As one of the world’s leading industrial players, with more than 40 years of experience in designing and developing maritime systems, the fact that Lockheed Martin has chosen to team with Atlantis as our global design and system integration partner will allow us to further enhance  our technology, project pipeline and the capabilities of our team.”

“Leveraging the experience and knowledge gained from the development and testing of our previous turbine systems over the past five years, Lockheed Martin will now work to complete the detailed design of our AR1500 system, which we will seek to deploy and test at the FORCE facility in early 2015.”

“Tidal energy is a very large, almost untapped, resource available on a global scale” said Tim Fuhr, director of ocean energy programs at Lockheed Martin. “Through this partnership, Lockheed Martin and Atlantis will bring the technology and skills to leverage the power of the ocean and provide access to affordable and secure renewable energy.” 

Press release, September 27, 2013; Image: Atlantis Resources