Edinburgh-based Simec Atlantis Energy (Atlantis) — a sustainable energy generation and technology developer, with a portfolio of more than 1,000MW in various stages of development — has been offered a grant worth 1 million euros by the EU’s Executive Agency for Small and Medium-size Enterprises (EASME) to support its turbine development programme.

Atlantis chief executive Tim Cornelius announced plans in October to expand the MeyGen site by adding two new turbines to boost its capacity to 400MW.

The two-year project will begin in January. Atlantis has also created a joint venture with the Development Agency for Normandy to develop a site off the coast of northern France that is billed as “Europe’s largest planned tidal-power project”.

Drew Blaxland, director of turbine and engineering services at Atlantis (www.simecatlantis.com), said: “The AR1500 turbine installed at the MeyGen project in 2017 marked the first commercial-scale turbine installed in a tidal array.

“Following the record-breaking operation of this turbine, we now look to the future and where opportunities to reduce the LCOE (levelised cost of electricity) exist.”