Two of the sites are being planned in Scotland, in the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay, with the third off the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland. ScottishPower Renewables expects planning applications to be submitted to the Scottish government and the Northern Irish Assembly in summer 2009.
Each site is being evaluated with a view of installing between five and 20 tidal turbines. With each turbine having an installed capacity of 1MW, this could lead to a combined output of 60MW. Following planning approval, the projects could be operational by 2011.
All three projects are expected to deploy the Lanstrom tidal turbine developed by Hammerfest Strom, a company jointly owned by ScottishPower Renewables, StatoilHydro and Hammerfest Energi.
Keith Anderson, director of ScottishPower Renewables, said: This is a historic day for the development of marine energy. The rapid technological advancement of tidal power has enabled us to progress plans for this substantial project which has the real potential to deliver significant environmental and economic benefits.
