Tide turns for ocean energy  

The SMH has a report on Australian tidal power company Atlantis and their ambition to be part of developments in Pentland Firth - Tide turns for ocean energy.

AN AUSTRALIAN company, using technology that a young Queensland engineer designed, is expected this week to announce a string of international contracts.

Atlantis Resources Corporation has developed turbines that can generate electricity from the sea's movement. It has begun trials at San Remo in Victoria. The company is confident it will win a contract to build 500 underwater turbines in the sea off Scotland. The tidal farm will have capacity to power a million homes.

"This is a story of a group of young Australians doing wonderful things on a global scale," Atlantis chief executive Timothy Cornelius said. He said the deep-water Solon turbine that 28-year-old Dr John Keir had designed was considered the world's most efficient underwater generator.

"This young guy from Townsville, in 12 months, has gone from concept to building this turbine," Mr Cornelius said. "The company is hopefully about to make some significant announcements on new projects with the potential to generate hundreds of megawatts of power in the United States, Canadian and Asian markets."

Mr Cornelius said the area that the company hoped to develop in Scotland - the Pentland Firth in the country's north - had been described as the Saudi Arabia of marine power. ...

Mr Cornelius said: "The tides are completely reliable, so much so that you can predict them 20 years in advance. That is exactly the kind of information energy companies are looking for. We can be highly accurate on our outputs to the electricity grid."

He said the Solon turbine worked best when submerged more than 40 metres and could generate two megawatts of power. "When you consider water covers 75 per cent of the world's surface, it is a wonderful opportunity because so much of that power is underdeveloped."

The company began in northern NSW, developing the shallow-water Nereus turbine, which can generate power from rivers. It has since moved to Singapore, nearer its Asian markets.

Mr Cornelius said the company was lobbying state governments in Australia for support to build fields of underwater turbines off the coast of Western Australia and Victoria.