Marine Current Turbines, the UK tidal energy technology company, has won EnergyOcean International’s 2011 Technology Pioneer Award for successfully demonstrating and running their commercial-scale SeaGen tidal technology. The award will be received by Martin Wright, Chief Executive of Marine Current Turbines (MCT), at the EnergyOcean International 2011 Conference in Portland, Maine, USA next month (June 15th).
The 1.2MW SeaGen, located in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough, is the only tidal current turbine anywhere in the world to feed power regularly into a local electricity grid on a commercial basis. It has been operating since 2008 and has the capacity to generate electricity for the equivalent of 1500 homes.
Drawing upon the operating experience of SeaGen, MCT’s plan is to develop a number of tidal arrays in British and overseas waters, and have a suite of tidal technologies that can be deployed in various depths of water. Martin Wright, CEO of MCT said: “We are very excited that our hard work in pioneering our SeaGen technology has been recognised internationally and we are thrilled and determined to remain at the vanguard of this new energy revolution. Tidal energy provides clean, renewable and predictable energy and when it becomes truly commercial, will provide new source of manufacturing jobs and a supply chain to match. We know that the US, the UK and the Canadian governments, among others, recognise the importance of supporting our industry.”
Source: www.marineturbines.com