World’s first commercial-scale tidal power system feeds electricity to the (Irish) National Grid

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.pandct.com/media/shownews.asp?ID=18539

21/07/2008 - World’s first commercial-scale tidal power system feeds electricity to the National Grid

1.2MW SeaGen generates power from the tides of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland & is welcomed by John Hutton

The world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine, located in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough and developed by British tidal energy company, Marine Current Turbines (MCT), has delivered electricity onto the grid for the first time.

The tidal current turbine, known as SeaGen, has briefly generated 150kW of power onto the grid as part of its commissioning work, ahead of it achieving full capacity in a few weeks time. SeaGen’s power is being intentionally constrained to 300kW during the commissioning phase, but once fully operational, it will generate 1.2MW of power, supplying clean and green electricity to the equivalent of 1000 homes.

Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: “This is an important milestone for the company and indeed the development of the marine renewable energy sector as a whole. SeaGen, Marine Current Turbines, tidal power and the UK Government’s push for marine renewables all now have real momentum. The marine environment poses a number of unique technical challenges, not least installing SeaGen in an extremely aggressive tide race, so we are delighted that Marine Current Turbines has delivered yet another world-first in this sector. It’s a major technical break-through. Our engineering team have done a fantastic job.”

Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton said: "This kind of world first technology and innovation is key to helping the UK reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and secure its future energy supplies. Marine power has the potential to play an important role in helping us meet our challenging targets for a massive increase in the amount of energy generated from renewables.

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[Indenturedebtor]

1. Ok I'll tak 50,000 of those to go with a side of solar and geothermal n/t