Atlantis Resources (www.atlantisresourcesltd.com) is to remove three of the four tidal turbines installed at its MeyGen Phase 1A array in the Pentland Firth for onshore maintenance and upgrades.

The three Andritz Hammerfest Hydro (AHH) 1.5MW turbines will be taken onshore for inspection and to allow the German manufacturer to implement system enhancements.

They will then be redeployed in the next available tidal window. The three machines were installed between November and January.

AHH director Rudolf Bauernhofer said: “We have learned a great deal from the first few months of operation. We have been very pleased with both the autonomous running capability of the turbines and their energy production, which is well above the guaranteed value.”

Atlantis said its 6MW MeyGen Phase 1A tidal project has generated almost 400MWh — sufficient to power the equivalent of 1,250 homes.

Drew Blaxland, director of turbines and engineering services at Atlantis, said: “We are delighted with the performance of the AR1500 turbine. Our initial data analysis shows that it is producing at least 4% more energy than the guaranteed contractual baseline, and we anticipate that this will improve further as more data is captured.

“This performance, coupled with our rapid and effective turbine deployment system, puts the Atlantis system in a class of its own.”