By 2011 the device will begin a two-year trial run at the European Marine Energy Centre alongside a handful of its competitors.
Alongside the foundation, which is being manufactured by German machinery giant Bauer, the machine and its installation are expected to cost £11.8m ($17.3m).
“Following successful tests, we intend to install further marine tidal current power plants with an installed capacity of up to 100MW mainly off the British coasts by 2020,” says RWE Innogy chief executive Fritz Vahrenholt.
Voith Hydro, formerly known as Voith Siemens, has been working on its tidal-energy technology since 2005 and has developed a direct-drive machine that does not need to adjust its rotor blades.
The
