Siemens has agreed to sell its Bristol-based tidal business, Marine Current Turbines (MCT), to Atlantis.
The sale includes seabed rights, existing projects, staff and intellectual property. Siemens will retain a 10% interest in Atlantis as part of the deal.
MCT’s projects in Wales, Northern Ireland and Southern England will expand Atlantis’s potential installed capacity to about 600MW.
Atlantis will acquire MCT 1.2MW surface piercing tidal SeaGen system, considered as the world’s first utility scale electricity generating tidal stream project, along with tidal turbine intellectual property portfolio.
The company will also buy the designs for MCT’s turbines, including its next generation 1MW submerged SeaGen turbine and 1MW SeaGen system designed for floating deployment applications.
Siemens will continue to deliver standard components for MCT’s tidal power turbines and projects.
A turbine assembly facility will be built at Global Energy’s Nigg yard in the Scottish Highlands.
Commenting on the transaction, Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division hydro & ocean power CEO Achim Woerner said: "This will enable the areas of competence of Marine Current Turbines, in particular its engineering capabilities, to be retained.
"Siemens will continue to cooperate with respect to component supply with MCT / Atlantis in the future."
Atlantis CEO Tim Cornelius said: "This deal sees two industry leaders, MCT and Atlantis, combining to underpin the UK’s position as one of Europe’s tidal power leaders."
Image: SeaGen tidal current system in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough. Photo: courtesy of Marine Current Turbines Limited.