Atlantis has reached an agreement to acquire the Bristol based tidal business, Marine Current Turbines Limited (MCT) from Siemens.
MCT was the company to installation and commission the world’s first commercial scale tidal turbine in 2008. The SeaGen S 1.2MW turbine, located in Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland, has generated approximately 10 gigawatt hours of electricity.
Atlantis will acquire extensive seabed rights, existing projects, staff and intellectual property.
This includes a portfolio of six projects expanding the company’s footprint into Wales, Northern Ireland and Southern England, as well as an additional potential project development capacity of 200MW augmenting existing capacity to nearly 600 MW of project pipeline.
Covered by the agreement is also MCT’s extensive tidal turbine intellectual property portfolio and the designs for MCT’s turbines, including its next generation 1 MW fully submerged SeaGen turbine (“SeaGen U”) and its 1MW SeaGen system designed for floating deployment applications (“SeaGen F”).
Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis, commented:
“We are delighted to be acquiring this leading British tidal power company from Siemens which firmly positions Atlantis as a leader in UK tidal power and globally. Marine Current Turbines has developed a world leading tidal turbine, a world class engineering team, unrivalled expertise in long-term turbine operations and testing through its SeaGen installation at Strangford Lough and an impressive portfolio of projects under development across the UK.”
Achim Woerner , CEO Hydro & Ocean Power at Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division, commented:
“We are pleased that Atlantis, one of the strongest players in the comparatively new segment of tidal stream, has acquired Marine Current Turbines. This will enable the areas of competence of Marine Current Turbines, in particular its engineering capabilities, to be retained. Siemens will continue to cooperate with respect to component supply with MCT / Atlantis in the future.”