Wheelhouse on MeyGen: “We are now seeing the benefits of our early investment”

Paul Wheelhouse, Scotland’s Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, has congratulated the project team behind the MeyGen tidal energy array on reaching the milestone of officially putting the Phase 1A, comprising four turbines, into operation. 

Wheelhouse said that the Scottish Government had been involved in the project’s success from the start: from granting the marine licence granted in 2014, providing more than £23 million of investment in Phase 1A, to officially launching the project two years ago.

Developed by Atlantis Resources, the 6MW Phase 1A consists of four 1.5MW tidal turbines and it is the world’s largest tidal stream array, according to the developer. The project has already generated 6GWh of clean energy before officially entering its 25-year operations phase.

“Scotland has done more than any other nation to support the development of ocean energy technologies and has hosted exciting World firsts for the tidal energy industry,” Paul Wheelhouse said. “I am therefore delighted that we are now seeing the benefits of our early investment and that Atlantis is able to move phase 1A of MeyGen into its operational phase, as we look to support Atlantis to secure construction of the remaining phases of what will ultimately be a commercial scale project.”

The entire MeyGen project is planned to have a capacity of 398MW, installed in phases, with Phase 1 having three buildout phases of its own (A, B and C) totalling approximately 86MW. The remaining capacity will be added through phases 2 and 3.

Currently, MeyGen has grid connection capacity for a tidal energy array of up to 252MW, covering Phase 1 and Phase 2, with the site capable of supporting the full project buildout. Phase 3, which will add the remaining 146MW and is scheduled for deployment after the completion of Phase 2, is subject to grid connection, turbine availability and speed of installation, according to information available on Atlantis Resources’ website.