The Marine Management Organisation of the UK announced April 20 that it had issued a license to operate the Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (PTEC), a state-of-the-art tidal energy generation project located off the Isle of Wight.
The project at 30MW is now the largest consented tidal stream energy project in England and Wales. It has also secured its future connection to the UK’s electricity grid.
Royal HaskoningDHV was appointed to lead PTEC’s consenting works (or permitting), including the environmental impact assessment (EIA), due to the company’s track-record of successful EIAs and reputation for gaining consents for projects in the marine environment. During this contract, Royal HaskoningDHV worked closely with IT Power who delivered the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for PTEC’s core infrastructure.
PTEC is operated as a joint venture between private company, Perpetuus Energy Ltd, and the Isle of Wight Council. PTEC’s offshore site will lie around 2.5km south of St Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight. It is hoped that the construction of the project will start in 2017, with potential to be generating electricity from late 2018.
A number of tidal turbine manufacturers have already expressed interest in partnering with PTEC to install their turbines. Once operational, PTEC will generate sufficient electricity to power more than 15,000 homes.