"The race to deliver full scale commercial [tidal energy] projects is gaining momentum globally and the prize for the winner will be significant," the CEO of the world's first stock-market listed tidal energy firm told the All Energy conference and exhibition in Glasgow this morning.
The prize will be even greater for the nation which can deliver this goal and attract a "valuable manufacturing industry, a wealth of jobs, inward investment and export potential," Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis Resources (pictured below) said.
"In the same way Denmark is widely credited with pioneering offshore wind, and reaping the benefits, Britain has the opportunity to own tidal power from a manufacturing, IP, supply chain and know-how perspective. We cannot allow this opportunity to be wasted."
Atlantis is leading the bid to win this prize. The firm is currently building out the MeyGen tidal energy project in the Pentand Firth, an area of water between mainland Scotland and Orkney.
Construction started on Phase 1a, comprising four, 1.5MW turbines (using two types, one pictured), last year. Atlantis is now planning to achieve financial close on Phase 1B and Phase 1C imminently, to bring the total installed capacity at MeyGen to more than 80MW by 2018/19. It then aims to install the full 398MW by 2022.
With various stages of this project, which could total 398MW, another project planned for the Sound of Islay, and others, Atlantis plans to have installed some 640MW offshore Scotland alone by 2020, Cornelius said.
More than £500 million of capex investment and expenditure is planned by the company in the next 2-3 years to deliver MeyGen Phase 1B, Phase 1C, and the Sound of Islay project in Scotland.
"This work will help preserve jobs and industries otherwise being put under extreme strain with lack of work from the oil and gas industry," says Cornelius.
Scottish Enterprise estimates 43% of the MeyGen Phase 1A project content was sourced from the UK supply chain and 90% of the total steel requirement was sourced from Redcar, northern England.
Foundation fabrication for Phase 1a is underway in Nigg Energy Park in Ross-Shire. Cables from JDR and other key components were manufactured in the UK and numerous local Scottish contractors are currently completing scope.
Phase 1B of the MeyGen project is currently expected to deliver 60% local supply chain content, Cornelius says.
"The tidal power industry can repurpose jobs lost from the oil and gas sector, make use of fabrication yards across the UK that have been hardest hit by the hydrocarbon downturn and create high value jobs in regions that need them most," says Cornelius.
"The next 90MW of installed capacity in the immediate Atlantis pipeline will deliver more than £450 million of investment creating an estimated 5300, high quality full-time equivalent job years in the UK."
In particular, the firm will need highly skilled welders and electricians, he said, roles which will help preserve jobs in Scotland.
"The technology and supply chain developed by the oil and gas industry in Scotland over the past 50 years is world-renowned and can be applied to the construction and maintenance of a tidal turbine arrays," Cornelius, who started his career as a diver and then ROV technician, said.
"The North Sea oil and gas industry has already developed the subsea construction equipment we need, designed the vessels we use and trained the people we recruit who are applying their experience in the construction and maintenance of offshore assets such as well heads, umbilical’s, risers and Xmas trees to the installation of cabling for turbines, foundations for fixation as the safe and efficient installation and monitoring of the turbines themselves.
"By drawing on the knowledge and expertise of the existing renewable and fossil fuel industries, Atlantis is delivering a pioneering energy solution for a new generation, and creating a new industry in its own right."
Atlantis acquired the Sound of Islay site from ScottishPower Renewables in December last year, along with a 100MW development at the Ness of Duncansby.
The firm aims to reach financial close on the 10MW Sound of Islay site late this year or early next year. Construction will then start in 2017, says Cornelius.
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