Sheffield-based Pulse Tidal has secured a grant of €8 million (£7 million) to begin work on its first commercial tidal energy generator.
Sheffield-based Pulse Tidal has secured a grant of €8 million (£7 million) to begin work on its first commercial tidal energy generator.
The company must now raise private investment to match the grant from the EU’s technology research and development fund, which has been awarded to Pulse and its seven supply chain partners including hydraulics specialist Bosch Rexroth, installation expert Herbosch Kiere and construction company Niestern Sander.
The 1MW generator is expected to provide electricity for up to 1,000 homes and will be commissioned in 2012.
Pulse chief executive Bob Smith, the former chief development officer at BP Solar, claims, ‘We have developed an economic way to recover predictable, renewable energy from the tides and are entering a young market predicted to be worth at least £6 billion annually in electricity sales.’
The system is based on horizontal blades which are moved up and down by tides to drive a generator. A 100kW test rig in the Humber estuary currently supplies power to a chemicals company.
Pulse Tidal has previously raised more than £3 million from investors including Japanese conglomerate Marubeni, sustainable energy specialist IT Power (also one of its supply chain partners) and The Viking Fund, an early-stage fund focused on Yorkshire.
