Atlantis Resources Limited, an international tidal energy company, has acquired the largest tidal energy project in Europe – MeyGen, which is located in the Pentland Firth.
The announcement comes shortly after the MeyGen project received its offshore planning consents from the Scottish Government, a key milestone in the development timetable which significantly de-risks the project’s delivery. Atlantis will now work with the Scottish Government, Department for Energy and Climate Change and The Crown Estate towards commissioning of the first MeyGen turbines in 2015.
Commenting on the announcement, Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantis Resources said:
“The size, location and tidal resource of MeyGen make it one of the most exciting marine energy projects under development anywhere in the world and Atlantis has been considering increasing the size of its shareholding for some time, subject to the award of consents. Now that the project has cleared this major regulatory hurdle, it is the logical time for us to do so.
“Having first established the MeyGen project back in 2006, we are very pleased to again have overall control of the project as the lead project developer, as we enter the final straight towards first array deployment. We are hugely excited about the site’s potential and look forward to continuing to work with the existing project team on its successful realisation.”
John Woodley of Morgan Stanley commented:
“Now that the MeyGen project has achieved offshore consents it makes sense for control of the project to revert back to Atlantis Resources. We continue to be a shareholder in Atlantis and remain involved and supportive of its development plans both in the Pentland Firth, and elsewhere around the world.”
Commenting further on Atlantis’ rationale for the acquisition, Cornelius said:
“Although attractive in itself, ownership of MeyGen will also serve one of Atlantis’ wider strategic objectives. We are already actively working on sites in Canada, India and China, and are exploring options in several other locations around the world.
“Taking full ownership of MeyGen will allow us to further strengthen our credentials as a leading developer of tidal power projects which complements our other principal activity as a turbine developer with our technology partner, Lockheed Martin. We will seek to consolidate our position as one of the leading marine energy companies by building our project development pipeline in the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East in the coming years.”
[mappress]
Press release, December 2, 2013; Image: MeyGen