Tidal Power wave breaks in Pentland Firth Scotland

While Scotland is never likely to be a hotspot for solar power we certainly have no shortage of other sources of renewable energy. There has of course been a good deal of windpower development but so far at least the tremendous power of the sea around the UK has been relatively untapped.

There has been plenty of cutting edge development work on tidal and wave power in the UK but nothing deployed on any great scale. There were plans for a tidal barrage across the river Severn but as far as I am aware that has now been kicked well into the long grass by the ConDem Government.

There is now welcome news that a group called MeyGen have secured a 25 year lease and are going to develop a huge tidal project in the inner sound of the Pentland Firth in Scotland.

MeyGen is a joint venture owned by International Power PLC, Morgan Stanley and Atlantis Resources Corporation and the construction is likely to take place in phases through to 2020. Eventually there should be up to 400 submerged tidal turbines in an area of around 3.3 sq Km. IF the development reaches that size it should generate enough energy to power around 400,000 homes.