Executive Viewpoint
Marine Current Turbines MD Martin Wright: "ROCs must keep projects competitive"
23 June 2010
The team at Marine Current Turbines (MCT), a UK-based developer of tidal current energy turbines, has had a busy year to say the least, including selling just under a 10% stake in the business to Siemens Energy--a sector precedent for the rest of the ocean power market, which by some estimates has the potential to generate up to 200 gigawatts of power worldwide by 2025. Martin Wright, managing director of MCT chats with Tidal Today on the company’s recent financing, how ROCs are the way forward and if he thinks the government will always have the final say on tidal energy’s future popularity among energy sources and consumers.
Interview by Katherine Steiner-Dicks
Q: Congratulations on your £3.5m fundraising. What will the money raised be earmarked for?
A: The £2.7m funding from the Carbon Trust’s Marine Renewables Proving Fund will support the company’s evaluation and operation of SeaGen, and will help towards the deployment of a larger tidal farm by MCT in UK waters.
Q; What do you hope to accomplish over 2010?
A: We aim to start work on further deployment of the SeaGen technology, with agreements with North American companies that could see the SeaGen system deployed in Canada ’s Bay of Fundy during 2011.
We also have partnerships with RWE npower and we are moving forward with plans to develop a tidal farm in waters off Anglesey, North Wales.
Q: Do you believe that more government funding is needed for the tidal energy sector in order to generate larger private funding rounds?
A: Britain has made a strong commitment to investment in innovation, and the Carbon Trust funding highlights the intention of encouraging renewable energy.
The government needs to complete its declared intentions with ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificate) banding to ensure that the incentives available for different technologies are competitive and consistent across the UK.
Currently, Scotland offer a larger incentive for tidal and wave, whereas in the rest of the UK, tidal power receives the same incentive as offshore wind, which uses technology with 30 years development behind it.
We want to see a good margin reflecting the immaturity and higher risks inherent in wave and tidal and equal for both (ideally 5 ROCs for the first projects) for the whole UK.
This would send a positive signal to investors, and ensure a fairer regulatory framework.
Q: How many homes are approximately being fed electricity through your turbine?
A:SeaGen produces on average the power to supply the average needs of approximately 1500 homes.
Q: When are you expected to get a 24/7 license of operation for the turbine?
A: We are now preparing SeaGen for more intensive operation and it is hoped to gain consent for continuous “24/7” operation before the summer.
Q: If there was one thing you could change to accelerate progress in tidal energy uptake, what would it be?
A:The government giving adequate and sufficiently long-term incentives to make early projects attractive to investors – 5 ROCs would do so far as we are concerned.
The beauty of this is that ROCs are a subsidy that rewards results – no energy means no ROCs and the more energy delivered the more ROCs get earned.
The ROC level should of course be reviewed and eventually reduced as the technology matures and becomes more cost-effective and reliable.
Grants on the other hand encourage many unsuccessful projects and can be a waste of money in many cases.
About the Company
Marine Current Turbines Ltd was set up in 2000. The company´s initial commercial demonstrator project, SeaGen, is in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. It is also working to on deployment in Canada's Bay of Fundy with Canada´s, Minas Bay Pulp & Power. From February 2008, the company has partnered with RWE npower to develop a tidal farm in waters off Anglesey, North Wales.
Since November 2008, two axial turbines with a combined capacity of 1.2 megawatts (MW) have been feeding power into the grid to supply about 1500 homes, a major milestone for the industry.In addition to Seimens Energy other shareholders include Carbon Trust Investments, EDF Energy, ESB International and Bank Invest.
We are happy to announce that Martin will be participating in Tidal Today’s 4th International Tidal Energy Summit, to be held at the Park Plaza hotel, London, on 23rd-24th November
