Siemens-MCT Skerries project suspended over finance
Siemens has suspended work on its 10MW Skerries tidal array in Anglesey, Wales two months after a £10m government grant was withdrawn, it has been reported in the British media.
By K.Steiner-Dicks on Sep 8, 2014
Siemens, through its tidal company subsidiary, Marine Current Turbines, said in a statement, according to news reports, that it was suspending the Skerries project, but looking to deploy its SeaGen tidal generators in other opportunities.
The 10MW £70m Skerries Tidal Stream Array, which was to be Wales’s first commercial tidal energy farm, was given planning permission from the Welsh Government in February 2013. A variation to the Marine Licence was approved by Natural Resources Wales in early 2014 to change the route of the export cable to come ashore at Cemaes Bay. Installation of the Anglesey Skerries Tidal Array was at the time planned for summer 2016.
However, the project’s reported inability to attract match funding for the site meant that construction delays were inevitable, pushing the project’s power distribution and completion past the intended 2016 deadline.