Three Tidal Tech Developers Signed Up For Morlais Project

North Wales tidal stream energy project, Morlais, received a significant boost to their project following their announcement of addition of three new turbine developers to with the project.

After months of talks with the French makers, namely Hydro Quest, Sabella’s & Spain maker Magallanes the deal was sealed to deploy their turbine equipment on the commercial scale at Crown Estate-designated zone off the coast of Anglesey, North Wales, United Kingdom.

The social enterprise, Menter Môn, runs the Morlais project. It has the potential to become one of the most significant tidal energy projects in the world. Electricity generated from this site will be transmitted to the National grid. A maximum of 9 sub-sea cables will be used to bring the power to the onshore substation—the project scheduled in two phases.

First Phase: Aim is to get approvals for the development of the project.

Second Phase: Mobilizing necessary infrastructure to the site so that new developers can install the required equipment.

Morlais is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh government. The project can scale up over time to generate up to 240 MW of electricity, which can power an estimated 180,000 households.

Companies and Technology 

SABELLA: The Sabellais D10-1000 turbine was France’s first grid-connected tidal turbine, which has its 1 MW technology. Sabella now has a keen look at targeting marine applications for remote grids with its level of standard products.

HydroQuest: The French Firm, HydroQuest, develops turbine technology for water-related projects and is focused on deploying its premium 1 MW tidal turbine OceanQuest in the Morlais zone.

Magallanes: It aims for more substantial scale deployment of its technology at Morlais after affluent testing its first commercial-scale tidal platform at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

Buzz

Jean-Christophe, Commercial Director of SABELLA - “We have been following Menter Môn’s work on the Morlais project since 2016 and are delighted now to be part of this ambitious project as a developer. We look forward to collaborating with colleagues at Morlais and other stakeholders for the future success of marine energy in Wales. Anglesey’s waters have a great deal of tidal resources, and Morlais will enable us to commercially deploy a pilot tidal array, a crucial step toward the development of the tidal industry.”

Alejandro Marques is Chief Executive Officer of Magallanes - “This is great news for us as a business, and we are grateful to Menter Môn for their commitment. After many years of research and recent testing in Scotland, we are now looking forward to being part of this exciting project in Wales, which has the potential to become one of the largest tidal energy arrays in the world.

Local skills, resources, and supply chain are key for developers like us, and we will rely on them for every step of the value chain. The Morlais project is not only being developed in one of the best geographical sites for tidal energy but also Wales has the skills and expertise needed to move the industry forward. The signing of this agreement is an important step for us and the beginning of a relationship, which we hope will enable the development of a sector which will benefit the local economy on Anglesey, the UK’s zero-emissions 2050 objective and global need to reduce pollution and fossil fuel emissions.”

Gerallt Llewelyn Jones, a Director with Morlais - “These agreements with three new developers over recent weeks show that there is incredible confidence in our project and we are delighted to be working with SABELLA, HydroQuest, and Magallanes. They are well-respected developers and will bring with them significant expertise when we move to the second phase of Morlais subject to securing relevant consent. It is an exciting time to be part of the marine energy sector with an ever-increasing focus on climate change and looking at alternative means of generating electricity – at Morlais; we are keen to play a key role.”

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