Marine Current Turbines spends £4.8 million with suppliers

British engineering firms have been awarded contracts by Marine Current Turbines Ltd (MCT), Bristol to help build SeaGen, the 1 MW tidal energy device set to be installed by MCT in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough later this year. The £8.5 million SeaGen project, supported by the DTI, will be the world’s first tidal stream energy scheme connected to an electricity network. A twin-turbine device, SeaGen will have the capacity to generate clean and sustainable electricity for approximately 800 homes. The first phase of contracts is valued at £2.5 million, with an additional £2.3 million of contracts expected to be placed by MCT for the system components, spares, test equipments and installation work. The British engineering firms selected in the first phase are BAS Castings (Pinxton, Nottinghamshire), Bendalls (Carlisle), Aviation Enterprises Ltd (Lambourn, West Berkshire), Blackhill Engineering (Exeter), Orbital 2 (Powys), Coupe Foundry (Preston, Lancashire), ETA (Romsey, Hampshire), Smart Fibres (Bracknell), Deep Sea Seals Ltd (Havant, Hampshire) and Innovative Deck Lifting Equipment (Maidstone). MCT has also placed a small number of contracts, including the manufacture of the SeaGen gearbox, with overseas companies from Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic.