EMEC Partners on Isle of Wight Tidal

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland, has joined forces with Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (PTEC) to develop a large-scale tidal energy site off the Isle of Wight, England.

PTEC is a 30MW tidal energy demonstration facility 2.5 km south of the Isle of Wight, with potential expansion capacity up to 300MW.

EMEC said it is already working on site development and optimisation activities, which will build upon the early work done by the PTEC team to get the site consented in 2016.

This site will be eligible to bid into future UK Contracts for Difference (CfD) allocation rounds, EMEC said.

PTEC said it has re-established its operational status to move to the next stage of development and has pulled in EMEC expertise to get the site ready for commercial scale tidal energy technologies now coming to market.

It is also exploring opportunities for offshore green hydrogen generation.

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.

“This is a great opportunity for EMEC to share the consenting and site development knowledge developed in Orkney, while supporting development of tidal energy and local job creation in the Isle of Wight and Solent.”

PTEC chair Rob Stevens said: “The PTEC partnership with global leaders EMEC is a huge opportunity to realise our vision of establishing a clean and inexhaustible tidal energy industry in the Isle of Wight and Solent.

“We have tidal energy developers knocking on the door, eager to deploy their technologies, and with EMEC on board we believe we’ve got the best team in the game to get the site CfD-ready.

“I’m confident that this, and the other projects in Wales and Scotland, will be the catalyst to stimulate private investment and the full commercialisation of tidal stream energy in the UK.”