A company I have followed closely for well over a year now, Marine Current Turbines, has won the (UK) Renewable Energy Association’s Developer of the Year Award. The award recognized MCT’s successful design, deployment and operation of its uber-innovative 1.2MW SeaGen tidal current energy system.

Installed in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough last year, SeaGen, the world’s first commercial-scale tidal current energy system is now generating power into the local grid at a peak capacity of 1.2 megawatts.

Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said, “This award, voted by the UK renewables industry, recognises the efforts and commitment of our engineering and project development teams.” Martin, who received the award at a ceremony in London added, “the development and deployment of SeaGen has been challenging and we have still have work to do in order to deploy our technology on a commercial basis but the REA Award underlines the belief, shared across the industry, that tidal energy can and will make a meaningful contribution to the UK energy market in the coming years.”

SeaGen’s success in the UK narrows hasn’t gone unnoticed in North America. Marine Current Turbines is currently testing it’s tidal power turbine system in Canada’s Bay of Fundy.