Atlantis ‘confident’ of marine future

Tidal power developer Atlantis Resources is confident the sector will be cost competitive with other renewable technologies in the future.

The company was responding to the UK government’s latest announcement on the Contracts for Difference regime, which, although it included marine energy, did not include a minimum level of guaranteed deployment for the sector.

The removal of the minima, which would have ring-fenced up 100MW of wave and tidal power, means marine will have to compete directly with other technologies in so-called pot 2, such as offshore wind.

Atlantis chief executive Tim Cornelius said: “We recognise that we must build on the success of our first projects to drive down the cost of energy to achieve parity with other forms of generation, and we have the advantage that we can draw on decades of prior development and cost reduction efforts in the wind power and oil and gas sectors. 

“Applying these lessons to our projects, and combining them with an agile and innovative supply chain and a supportive Scotland, enables us to be confident that we can accelerate cost reductions and achieve parity with other renewables for projects coming into operation under the forthcoming CfD allocation round. 

“We are confident that tidal power will be a long term supplier of predictable renewable generation representing excellent value for consumers.”

Atlantis is on track to deliver first power from its MeyGen Phase 1A tidal array in the Pentland Firth by the end of the year.

Image: foundation installation for MeyGen (Atlantis Resources)