Atlantis slashes losses; Meygen clocks in 33GWh

UK-based Simec Atlantis Energy has seen its loss cut almost by half for the six months ended 30 June 2020.

The company booked overall loss before tax of £6.1 million against the loss of £11.8 million same time last year.

This improvement is largely attributable to strong revenue contributions generated by the Atlantis tidal turbine and engineering services division, together with good performance from the MeyGen project in Scotland.

Six months of revenue contributions from GHR also added to the improved performance relative to 2019.

Revenue for the period was close to £8 million, versus some £2 million same time last year.

On 6 August 2020, the company announced the launch of a fundraising comprising a placing by way of an accelerated bookbuild process by Investec and Arden and an offer for subscription by PrimaryBid.

The placing raised gross proceeds of £6.5 million and the PrimaryBid offer raised £1 million.

Atlantis uses the proceeds to fund its working capital requirements and for the proposed investment in NPA Fuels Limited.

The 6MW first phase of the MeyGen project has now exported more than 33GWh to the grid.

The Atlantis AR1500 turbine requires further repair and maintenance following its redeployment in August.

Atlantis expect to redeploy the AR1500 by the end of December 2020.

The variable pitch upgrade should deliver a 4 per cent increase in annual revenue with no increase in operating cost.

The August operations included the completion of the installation of MeyGen’s new subsea hub. Atlantis delivered a £2.4-million contract supported by a grant from the Saltire Tidal Energy Challenge Fund.

This subsea hub is a key enabler for cost reductions in future tidal arrays, allowing the connection of multiple turbines offshore.

Atlantis is also in the final stages of construction and testing for an AR500 turbine system set for delivery in Japan for Kyuden Mirai Energy in Q4 2020.

The turbine will be deployed in the Straits of Naru, within the southern Japanese Goto island chain.