OREANDA-NEWS. September 25, 2015. Atlantis, a global leader in the tidal power sector, is pleased to announce that it has this morning successfully completed the laying of four subsea cables at the MeyGen site in northern Scotland.

The four cables are housed in individual bore holes of approximately 0.5km in length each, drilled earlier this year, which run from the foreshore into the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth and down to the seabed. From the exit of the borehole, the cables then run along the seabed to the offshore project site, where four 1.5 MW tidal turbines will be deployed next year.  The cables will connect the tidal turbines to the onshore substation, from where the power will be fed into the wider grid.  

Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis, said:

"This is an excellent result for the project.  By its very nature the offshore site is a challenging tidal environment, and to complete the installation campaign safely and in line with the programme is a commendable achievement by our onshore and offshore teams, aided by great performance from the vessel.  After all the planning it is very rewarding to see the offshore infrastructure taking shape for this trail-blazing project."

The MeyGen project is the largest planned tidal stream development project in the world at 398 megawatts of total installed capacity when fully constructed. Situated in the Pentland Firth, Scotland, the MeyGen array will consist of 269 submerged tidal turbines, enough to power 175,000 Scottish homes.

The construction of the MeyGen tidal array will take place in three stages including:

-      Phase 1A: the first 6MW (4 turbines): Enough to power approximately Scottish 3000 homes

-      Phase 1: the first 86MW (61 turbines in total): Enough to power approximately 42,000 Scottish homes

-      The complete 398 MW (269 turbines): Enough to power approximately 175,000 Scottish homes

In September 2014, Atlantis announced a ?51.3 million project finance package for MeyGen, including a mixture of debt, equity and grants from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, Scottish Enterprise, The Crown Estate and Highlands and Islands Enterprise for the construction of Phase 1A of the MeyGen project. The Atlantis group retains a holding of 85%in MeyGen, and Scottish Enterprise's holding, as a new shareholder, is 15%.