Orkney, Scotland-based European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) announced that it has collaborated with Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (PTEC) to develop a large-scale tidal energy site off the Isle of Wight, England.
The PTEC is a 30MW tidal energy generation demonstration project, which is located 2.5 km south of the Isle of Wight. It is said to have a potential expansion capacity up to 300MW.
EMEC has already started working on site development and optimisation activities, which will build upon the early work completed by the PTEC team to get the site consented in 2016.
The site is expected to be eligible to bid into future UK Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation rounds, allowing the UK developed tidal energy technologies to supply low carbon energy.
EMEC commercial director Matthew Finn said: “The EMEC – PTEC partnership shows the enthusiasm from across the UK to roll out the deployment of leading tidal stream technologies.
“Working alongside the Marine Energy Council, EMEC and PTEC submitted evidence into the marine energy consultation and have now come together to get the PTEC site ready and accommodate commercial tidal energy array deployments.”
PTEC is also exploring opportunities for offshore green hydrogen generation
PTEC will utilise EMEC’s expertise to get the site ready for commercial scale tidal energy technologies.
The partnership builds on work being carried out for the £41m Interreg Channel funded TIGER project.
Led by the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult) with EMEC as a key site development partner, the TIGER project will prepare five sites in France and the UK for tidal energy developments.
Now, PTEC is also exploring opportunities for offshore green hydrogen generation.
In March last year, an European consortium led by EMEC secured €31m to build and test a floating wind project off the coast of Ireland.
