UK company Marine Current Turbine (MCT) received approval from the country’s Department of Environment & Heritage for its 1MW SeaGen project, which can provide enough electricity to power 6000 homes.
The project, to be located in a tidal estuary channel known as the Strangford Lough, received a £4.27 million ($A10.19 million) grant from the UK's Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) technology program.
It is scheduled for connection to the National Grid next year.
MCT developed the SeaGen device on the basis of a smaller, 300 KW SeaFlow device, which has been running off the north Devon coast in the UK for the past 2.5 years, according to technical director professor Peter Fraenkel.
"We have shown that it is possible to generate power in a hostile marine environment and to have a negligible effect on marine life,” Fraenkel said.
“Strangford Lough will demonstrate whether SeaGen has the commercial potential whilst safeguarding the marine environment.”
SeaGen consists of twin axial flow rotors of 15m to 20m in diameter, each driving a generator via a gearbox, much like a hydro-electric turbine or a wind turbine. The twin power units of each system are mounted on wing-like extensions either side of a tubular steel monopile about 3m in diameter which is set into a hole drilled into the seabed.
Marine current turbines work along the same principle as submerged windmills, but are driven by flowing water rather than air. They can be installed in ocean locations with high tidal current velocities or fast enough continuous ocean currents, to extract energy from these huge volumes of flowing water.
Frankael said marine current turbines can provide a constant stream of electricity due the predictable nature of tides. This is unlike wind or wave energy, which varies due to the unreliability of the weather.
