TIDAL power has reached a “seminal” moment in its development, with fund manager Equitix committing £100 million to help develop the sector over the next two years.
The partnership with tidal power specialist Atlantis Resources will see Equitix acquiring at least 25% of each “project vehicle” that Atlantis develops.
Equitix, which manages funds in excess of £1.7 billion, will work with Atlantis to prepare the projects for investment of the construction capital and achievement of financial close.
“This is a seminal moment,” said Atlantis CEO Tim Cornelius. “This is where we transition from research and planning into having mainstream market investment.”
Mr Cornelius said the investment would kick start an industry that will support thousands of jobs. He said: “Scotland is the world leader in tidal power. It’s the leader in technology and now it’s the leader in project finance.”
Challenges over the past decade of planning have included building the technology, testing turbines, establishing a regulatory framework and agreeing on a feed-in-tariff with the Government. Mr Cornelius said that cost reductions as a result in the downturn in oil and gas made it the ideal time to invest in tidal.
In the next two years alone Atlantis anticipates committed capital investment of almost £500m for construction of its Scottish portfolio, from a combination of debt, equity and grants. This portfolio includes its flagship MeyGen project in the Pentland Firth, and a project of similar scale in the Sound of Islay.
Atlantis already has £51m committed for the current construction of the first phase of the MeyGen project, which is now connected to the National Grid and is scheduled to produce first power this summer.
It aims to deploy up to 398 megawatts of offshore tidal stream turbines to supply clean and renewable electricity to the National Grid by 2020. That is enough to power 250,000 homes for 25 years.
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