Wave energy boss warns UK could lose emerging industry

The head of the world’s biggest tidal energy project yesterday warned of the potential “travesty” facing the UK if it did not even the renewables stakes.

Tim Cornelius is the chief executive of Edinburgh-based Atlantis Resources, which operates the MeyGen project in the Pentland Firth.

His warning came as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) revealed the outcome from the 2017 allocation round for contracts for difference (CfDs) for renewable energy projects.

Atlantis’s majority owned subsidiary, MeyGen Ltd, was not awarded a CfD in this allocation round in respect of Phase 1C of the world’s largest tidal-stream project in northern Scotland.

Mr Cornelius said: “We’ve made great strides in reducing our cost of generation so that we can slash our requirement for revenue support, and I am incredibly proud of the work the Atlantis team has done in this respect.

“However, I must acknowledge the difficulties of competing on a level playing field with established technologies like offshore wind, which has been operating at commercial scale in the UK for over a decade.

“It would be a travesty if the UK were to lose out on another emerging industry where it has established a first-mover advantage and where the cost of energy is on a steep downward trajectory.”

Meanwhile it has emerged electricity from offshore wind in the UK will be cheaper than new nuclear power.

The cost of subsidies for new offshore windfarms has halved since the last 2015 auction for clean-energy projects.

Two firms said they were willing to build offshore windfarms for a subsidy of £57.50 per megawatt hour for 2022-23.

This compares with the new Hinkley Point C nuclear plant securing subsidies of £92.50 per megawatt hour.