Atlantis Resources To Improve MeyGen Efficiency Through Project Stroma

LONDON (Alliance News) - Atlantis Resources Ltd on Thursday confirmed it will proceed with the next stage of investment and development of its flagship MeyGen tidal project off the coast of Scotland next year.

Atlantis owns 86% of MeyGen, an offshore tidal stream project that is expected to produce and deliver clean electricity to the UK national grid using 398 megawatts of capacity early on in the 2020s. The project is described as "Europe’s largest and most important tidal energy project."

The first phase of development reached a landmark moment only last week, when Atlantis said the Andritz Hydro Hammerfest turbine had began operating at full capacity. That is the first of four which will be installed at the site on Pentland Firth in Scotland.

"The lessons we have learned from phase 1a and the confidence it has given to both us and our supply chain allow us to deliver significant improvements and refinements in this next phase," said Chief Executive Tim Cornelius on Thursday. "We believe these improvements will yield more electricity for each pound of investment and represent a material step down our cost reduction curve."

Each MeyGen turbine is capable of generating 1.5 megawatts of power when the water speed reaches just over 3.0 meters per second, or around six knots of flow.

The next stage of development, known as MeyGen phase 1B or more commonly as Project Stroma - taking its name from adjacent Island of Stroma - was approved after Atlantis tendered for construction contracts to allow it to estimate costs. Although these were not published, the company is confident construction can begin "in 2017".

"This next phase of the MeyGen site development is an important step in demonstrating progress to a lower cost of energy for tidal stream. Project Stroma will include larger diameter rotors to capture more energy from the tidal flow, as well as optimised turbine power ratings," said the company.

"Furthermore, Project Stroma will use drilled foundation structures rather than the material intensive gravity foundations used in MeyGen phase 1a," Atlantis added.

The turbines will be provided by Marine Current Turbines Ltd, which Atlantis purchased from Siemens last year in an all-share deal.

Importantly, the MeyGen project is being part-funded through EU grants and Atlantis confirmed that EUR16.8 million of grant support has been confirmed for Project Stroma.

Atlantis shares were trading 1.4% higher on Thursday at 52.70 pence per share.

By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance

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