Pulse Tidal Ltd's test project, which has been given 878,000 of public money, could generate up to 0.15 megawatts of electricity from underwater currents in the Humber Estuary near Hull.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has given planning permission for a prototype tidal power project in the northeast England, industry minister John Hutton said on Monday.
Pulse Tidal Ltd's test project, which has been given 878,000 of public money, could generate up to 0.15 megawatts of electricity from underwater currents in the Humber Estuary near Hull.
If successful, the technology could be used to develop 1-MW units strung together in tidal power farms generating up to 100MW, or enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes.
"Our continued support for these emerging technologies is essential," Hutton said in a statement.
!ADVERTISEMENT!"We will be doubling the support available for those technologies...This kind of tidal project, if proven, will go some way to helping the UK meet its ambitious targets for clean, green energy."
The European Commission proposed in January that Britain should get 15 percent of all energy from renewable sources such as the wind, sun and biomass by 2020, versus 1.3 percent in 2005, as part of a wider European effort to cut carbon emissions.
Reporting by Daniel Fineren)
