Tidal turbine plugs in

The UK's first commercial-scale tidal turbine successfully fed power into the National Grid for the first time yesterday in a move heralded as a major breakthrough for the country's embryonic marine energy sector.

The SeaGen tidal turbine, which was installed in Northern Ireland's Strangford Lough, briefly fed 150Kw of power into the grid.

Marine Current Turbines, the company behind the underwater turbine, said that following the successful test the project was on track to become fully operational by the end of the summer, at which point it will deliver 1.2Mw of power to the grid, equivalent to that used by 1,000 homes.

Martin Wright, managing director of Marine Current Turbines, said that the move marked "an important milestone" for both the company and the marine renewables sector as a whole.

"SeaGen, Marine Current Turbines, tidal power and the UK government's push for marine renewables all now have real momentum," he said, adding that connecting a turbine operating in an "extremely aggressive tide race" represented a "major technical breakthrough".

The news was welcomed by business secretary John Hutton who insisted that the government remained fully committed to expanding the UK's marine energy capacity. "My department has supported SeaGen from the start, granting £5.2 million in funds to take it from the drawing board and into the waters of Strangford Lough," he said. "This, and our plans to double the financial support for marine technologies, is further evidence of our commitment to making the UK one of the most attractive places to invest in green energy."

Marine Current Turbines said that it was now investigating the potential for further tidal energy farms in other parts of the UK and North America. Earlier this year, it announced that it was partnering with energy giant NPower's renewables arm to develop a 10.5Mw project off the coast of Anglesey that is expected to come online by 2012.