Atlantis previously owned about 10 percent of the MeyGen Ltd., which is building the project. Terms of the agreement, which also includes equity from joint venture partners GDF Suez and Morgan Stanley, have not been disclosed.
Announcement of the deal comes shortly after the MeyGen project received its offshore planning consents from the Scottish Government.
Atlantis will now work with the Scottish Government, Department for Energy and Climate Change and The Crown Estate towards commissioning of the first MeyGen turbines in 2015.
“The size, location and tidal resource of MeyGen make it one of the most exciting marine energy projects under development anywhere in the world," said Tim Cornelius, Atlantis Resources ' CEO.
" Atlantis has been considering increasing the size of its shareholding for some time, subject to the award of consents. Now that the project has cleared this major regulatory hurdle, it is the logical time for us to do so," Cornelius said.
He added: “Having first established the MeyGen project back in 2006, we are very pleased to again have overall control of the project as the lead project developer, as we enter the final straight towards first array deployment. We are hugely excited about the site’s potential and look forward to continuing to work with the existing project team on its successful realisation.”
At 398MW MeyGen is the largest tidal energy project in Europe.
Located in the Inner Sound development zone of Scotland’s Pentland Firth, the project was first proposed by Atlantis Resource’s project origination team in 2006. The 3.5 sq. km area site is being developed in multiple stages, with first power expected in late 2015 or early 2016.
“Now that the MeyGen project has achieved offshore consents it makes sense for control of the project to revert back to Atlantis Resources," said John Woodley of Morgan Stanley. "We continue to be a shareholder in Atlantis and remain involved and supportive of its development plans both in the Pentland Firth, and elsewhere around the world.”
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