Atlantis to test world's biggest tidal turbine

By Nao Nakanishi

LONDON (Reuters) - Atlantis Resources Corp is to test the world's biggest tidal turbine in the rough waters off the Orkney Islands next year in preparation for Scotland's plan to use ocean energy for half a million homes by 2020.

Tim Cornelius, chief executive officer at Atlantis, said the company was investing about 15 million pounds ($25 million) to build and test the turbine, which has rotors that are 18 meters in diameter, the height of five storey building.

The AK-1000 turbine, which has a capacity of 1 megawatt (MW) -- in line with other pioneering marine energy converters -- will be deployed at the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) test site in Orkney.

"We are finalizing the tender for manufacturers. We are making this in the UK for the first time," Cornelius told Reuters in an interview. Previous smaller versions were made elsewhere.

"We will be committing at least 15 million pounds just for this testing regime in EMEC."

Atlantis is working with Norway's state-owned utility Statkraft to win a bid in Britain's Pentland Firth marine energy project, the world's first industrial scale wave and tidal energy program, which is intended to reach at least 700 MW of capacity by 2020.

The Crown Estate, which owns the seabed within 12 nautical miles off Britain's coast, plans to sign lease agreements for the Pentland Firth program with developers by April.

While there are around 100 companies around the world working on marine energy, including wave power, only a handful have installed their devices at sea. Others are running tests in tanks or on computers.