(Bloomberg) — Minesto AB, a closely held developer of
marine-energy systems, is receiving 13 million euros ($14
million) from the European Regional Development Fund for its
first commercial-scale project, in Wales.
The funds will be used to build a power plant off the port
city of Holyhead, in the Irish Sea, and to establish Minesto’s
U.K. headquarters in the North Wales region, the Gothenburg,
Sweden-based company said in a statement Wednesday.
Minesto’s Deep Green systems are shaped like underwater
kites that generate electricity from low-velocity tidal and
ocean currents.
Minesto will install the plant’s first 500-kilowatt system
as part of an array that will grow to 10 megawatts of capacity
by 2019, according to the statement.
The full development will generate enough power for about
8,000 homes. Wales has about 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) of
coastline with low-velocity tidal currents, enough to supply as
much as 5 percent of the U.K.’s total electricity demand.
“We have extensive raw wave and tidal energy resources
along our shorelines, and this is an excellent example of
commercial solutions being developed in Wales to help drive our
potential to be a world-leader in the marine-energy market,”
First Minister Carwyn Jones said in the statement.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Carlos Caminada, Will Wade