Simec Atlantis Energy has chosen GE’s Power Conversion business as preferred supplier for electrical systems for the former’s MeyGen tidal development.
The partners said the agreement marks a long-term relationship that should enable both companies to promote their technologies and lead to the installation of full-scale marine energy arrays.
MeyGen is located in the Pentland Firth, north of Scotland, and has been generating power into the UK grid for over a year.
The contract between the two companies will advance the MeyGen development into its second phase, known as Project Stroma, adding another 6MW of power generation capacity.
GE will provide the tidal turbine generators and the power converters.
It has already started working with Simec Atlantis de-risking the overall system using its electrical systems knowledge and capability.
Simec Atlantis director of turbine and engineering services Drew Blaxland said: “We are excited to partner with GE to deliver the MeyGen tidal project.
“We strongly believe that the project has the potential to provide home-grown transformation of the UK energy market and will redefine what the world can expect from renewable tidal energy.”
GE Power Conversion chief executive of industry, power, water and wind Gagan Sood said: “This is a major step forward towards large-scale tidal energy production, which makes the MeyGen tidal stream application a pathfinder for the future of tidal energy for the UK and around the world.
“We are committed to doing our part in innovating green energy to meet growing cleaner energy demands.”