Engineering news
Tidal energy specialist Atlantis has acquired Bristol-based tidal business Marine Current Turbines (MCT) from Siemens in an all share deal.
The acquisition covers the British tidal turbine business, including extensive seabed rights, existing projects, staff and intellectual property.
Atlantis acquires MCT’s tidal turbine intellectual property portfolio and the designs for MCT’s turbines, including its next generation 1MW fully submerged SeaGen turbine and its 1MW SeaGen system designed for floating deployment applications.
The deal also includes the 1.2MW surface piercing tidal SeaGen system, the world’s first utility scale electricity generating tidal stream project with the longest track record of generation having now been operating for more than five years in Northern Ireland generating approximately 10 gigawatt hours of electricity.
The acquisition will enable Atlantis to expand its footprint into Wales, Northern Ireland and Southern England via a portfolio of six projects, increase its project development portfolio in Scotland, and establish a dedicated turbine assembly facility at Global Energy’s Nigg Energy Park in Ross-Shire, Scotland.
The acquisition also offers Atlantis additional potential project development capacity of 200MW, augmenting existing capacity to nearly 600MW of project pipeline.
Tim Cornelius, chief executive of Atlantis, said: “Marine Current Turbines has developed a world leading tidal turbine, a world class engineering team, unrivalled expertise in long-term turbine operations and testing through its SeaGen installation at Strangford Lough and an impressive portfolio of projects under development across the UK.
“We welcome Siemens as an Atlantis shareholder. This deal sees two industry leaders, MCT and Atlantis, combining to underpin the UK’s position as one of Europe’s tidal power leaders.”
The acquisition is conditional on certain certain conditions being met.