Wave of the future inWales?
that it intended to expand the commercial roll-out of its Deep Green technology in Holyhead Deep by increasing the planned installed capacity of its tidal energy array from 10MW to 80MW.
It said this makes the proposal more attractive to investors and will bring more jobs, with the future potential to develop the port into a export hub for the company.
Following the planned installation of the first 0.5MW commercial scale demonstrator this year – backed with EU funds through the Welsh Government – Minesto intends to develop the Holyhead Deep site in three phases as part of a deploy-and-monitor approach.
This gradual expansion will see Minesto taking the Deep Green technology from demonstrator to full industrial roll-out in north Wales.
A Deep Green installation has been producing electricity in the waters off Northern Ireland for more than two years already.
Skerries tidal array This £70m tidal project off the coast of Anglesey was shelved and then revived, only to be dropped again last year.
The 10MW Skerries Tidal Stream Array, which was to be Wales’ first commercial tidal energy farm, received planning permission from the Welsh Government in February 2013 and was due to create dozens of local jobs.
It would have seen seven massive tidal generators located in up to 130ft (40m) of water at the Skerries, off the north-west coast of Anglesey.
But it ran into difficulties in 2014 and was shelved by developer Marine Current Turbines/Siemens.
It was then bought up last year by Atlantis, a global leader in the tidal power sector, sparking hopes the scheme would now progress to development.
But last year Atlantis returned the Agreement for Lease (AFL) for the seabed to The Crown Estate, following a strategic internal review of the company’s portfolio of tidal energy projects.
DeltaStream The much-heralded and long-delayed DeltaStream, which was being tested in Ramsey Sound, hit technical problems last year and its developer, Cardiff-based Tidal Energy Ltd, was forced into administration after failing to secure further funding to make repairs.
DeltaStream was an underwater tidal stream turbine designed to convert the energy of tidal currents into electricity in much the same way as a wind turbine does with the wind.
It had been under development for
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many years and received several rounds of funding to keep work going.
Tidal Energy Ltd was backed by Cardiff-based renewable energy developer Eco2.
A full-scale version of the device, albeit with only one turbine instead of the eventual three, was installed in Ramsey Sound for testing last year after many delays due to bad weather.
But it developed mechanical problems and the company did not have the money to fix them.
Swansea Bay tidal lagoon This much-feted project received a massive boost in January when former energy minister Charles Hendry gave it his enthusiastic backing in his review into tidal lagoons.
Mr Hendry urged the Government to proceed with arranging a subsidy package with the developers Tidal Lagoon Power as swiftly as practicable.
But ministers have refused to be rushed into striking a deal, with Prime Minister Theresa May saying on her recent visit to Swansea that the Government needed to time to properly analyse the report.
And while officials in Westminster consider strike prices, others at Natural Resources Wales have still to decide whether to grant the project a marine licence.
So while 100 MPs have written to the Energy Secretary urging support for the lagoon, the clock is ticking on whether the company will be able to get financial close and get work started this year.
Severn Barrage This most ambitious project for harnessing marine energy from around our shores has been brought up several times over recent decades, only to be dismissed as too expensive and damaging to environmental and shipping interests.
But its backers remain and they’re hopeful that new life could be breathed into the grand scheme by the Hendry review, which said small barrage projects could be considered while evidence was gathered on the impact of the Swansea Bay lagoon.
And they are also likely to argue that the impact of large-scale lagoons at Cardiff and Newport on currents in the Severn would be so big that you would be better off building a barrage instead.
Expect these arguments to emerge if the Swansea Bay lagoon goes ahead and attention turns to big lagoons upriver.