courtesy Hammerfest Strøm

Norwegian power-generation heavyweight Statkraft -- builder of German gas plant plus dams and wind farms in Norway -- has put 45 million kroner ($6.6 million) into tidal energy company Atlantis Resources Corporation.

The deal gains Statkraft access to expertise and a boardroom overseeing tidal energy projects and exclusive talks on more in the United Kingdom and Canada.

An unconfirmed report also said Morgan Stanley picked up a large shareholding in Atlantis on Monday.

The two energy industry companies will also collaborate on licence applications for Scotland's Pentland Firth, where licences to develop up to 700 megawatts of marine energy will be handed out by 2009.

"The tidal power sector in Europe is poised for immense growth over the next decade and with Atlantis we will be well placed to secure a pole position in this market," says Nicolai Gedde, Statkraft vice president for marine energy.

Statkraft has been investing in tidal power for years through holding company Hydra Tidal Technology. In December 2008, Statkraft and Northern Ireland-based partners B9 Energy and Deepblue Renewables founded the consortium Thetis Energy Ltd to develop tidal power offshore Northern Ireland.

Tidal power is also an important element of the Ocean Energy Programme, a long-term R&D programme initiated and partly funded by Statkraft in collaboration with leading Nordic universities.

London-based Atlantis has completed trials of its trademark Solon deep-water turbine, an efficient model subjected to large-scale testing. Atlantis’s trademark Nereus shallow-water turbine is already operational and grid-connected off Melbourne, Australia.

Both turbine types are about to go commercial.

To this, Statkraft brings 2008 gross operating revenues of €3.1 billion ($458 million).

Tags: Statkraft