Marine Current Turbines, yesterday (24th November) announced that it had appointed Cavendish Corporate Finance, to secure new investment in the company. No specific figures were mentioned but the move, says the company, is intended to provide it with sufficient capital to support its future development programme.

Commenting on the appointment of Cavendish Corporate Finance, Martin Wright said: "MCT’s management team and its existing shareholders realise that the company requires additional long-term investment if the company is to realise its full potential.  Whilst our world-first achievements, with SeaGen and its predecessor SeaFlow, are widely acknowledged around the world, we recognise that we need to achieve a quantum leap in financial resources to take full advantage of the opportunities that are starting to open up in the UK and globally."

The company also took the opportunity to confirm that it intends to apply for a lease from the Crown Estate to deploy its tidal technology in Scotland’s Pentland Firth.  Subject to financing and securing the necessary approvals, the company has said it will install up to 50MW of capacity by 2015, using its SeaGen technology, and up to 300MW or more by 2020 if the local grid can take it.

Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: "We welcome the Crown Estate’s competition for the Pentland Firth.  Given our experience with our SeaGen tidal project in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough, we believe that we have a clear and substantial technical advantage as well as unique, practical experience of installing and running a commercial scale tidal power system."

He added: "Harnessing the power of the Pentland Firth will be challenging and there are still substantial issues, in particular financing and grid connection, which will have to be addressed.  However, the move by the Crown Estate is a significant and welcome step forward if the UK is to harness the sea’s energy potential on a truly commercial basis."