UK: Isle of Wight Council to Join Forces with Private Firms on SOEC

The Isle of Wight Council plans to establish a joint venture company with private firms to develop the Solent Ocean Energy Centre (SOEC) project, according to the Isle of Wight County Press.

The Council cabinet will make a decision on the establishment of the joint venture company next week and the partners from the private sector will be familiar after the agreement is signed.

This means that the private companies would invest GBP 1 million in the project, adding to the Council’s GBP 1 million and GBP 700,000 of European funding.

The SOEC testing / demonstration facility to develop tidal energy technology will produce 20MW of energy and could lead to the creation of a full scale tidal energy production centre also off St Catherine’s that would be capable of generating 200-250 MW of green power (enough to power 136,000 homes).

[mappress]

Offshore WIND Staff, January 6, 2012; Image: Isle of Wight Council