The Tidal Stream Industry Energiser Project, known as TIGER, is an ambitious €46.8m project, of which €28m (69%) comes from the European Regional Development Fund via the Interreg France (Channel) England Programme. This is the largest ever Interreg project and will prove to be game-changing for the European tidal stream energy sector.
The total theoretical tidal energy capacity in the Channel region is nearly 4GW, which is enough to power up to three million homes. The TIGER project aims to drive the growth of tidal stream energy by installing up to 8MW of new tidal capacity at sites in and around the Channel region, thus driving innovation and the development of new products and services. TIGER will make a stronger, more cost-effective case to utilise this tidal energy capacity and justify the need for tidal stream to become part of the energy mix in the UK and France. The project will do so by harnessing economies of scale via volume manufacturing and multi-device deployment.
Proving that tidal energy generation will can be cost-effective on a large scale could open the door for it to become the renewable energy source of choice in coastal locations, helping the growth of clean energy generation.
TIGER brings together multiple partners across the UK and French offshore renewable energy supply chain to work towards validating the commercialisation of marine energy technology. This validation will help to ensure that sustainable and affordable energy plays a key role in our future energy mix as we work towards achieving net-zero by 2050 and beyond.
Led by ORE Catapult, TIGER comprises of 18 partners including turbine developers, ocean energy demonstration sites, research organisations as well as local and regional authorities. ORE Catapult will have the primary role of project management and cost reduction analysis, coordinating the collection of this cost reduction data from the project and leading on the evaluation and presentation of the results.
Dr Stephen Wyatt, Research and Innovation Director for ORE Catapult said:
We are delighted to be spearheading this game-changing tidal energy project. Developing successful UK and European collaborations is important for the UK tidal energy industry and will help accelerate the economic, environmental and societal benefits which can be derived from this emerging sector.
The other partners include:
UK:
France:
Sweden:
