A tidal energy company has been handed a £2.7m grant to support the enhancement of one of the world's largest tidal energy systems, which is based in Co Down.

SeaGen, the world's largest and so far only megawatt scale grid-connected tidal current energy system, has been supplying electricity to customers in Northern Ireland since December 2008.

Marine Current Turbines (MCT) has received the grant from the Carbon Trust’s Marine Renewables Proving Fund (MRPF).

-- Advertisement --

Martin Wright, Managing Director of MCT, said: "Securing the MRPF funding is another strong vote of confidence in our SeaGen technology and importantly we are proving that our SeaGen technology works extremely well supplying power to commercial customers on a daily basis."

"The experience that we are gaining from SeaGen’s real-time operation is of enormous value as we seek to improve its efficiency and operational capabilities in advance of deploying further turbines into our first tidal farms.

"The Carbon Trust funding will be used to assess SeaGen's operation, our engineering processes, construction and installation techniques and assist us in reviewing and evaluating a range of other important issues."

SeaGen is located at the mouth of Strangford Lough.

(NS/BMcC)