Atlantis raises another £5m for world’s largest tidal energy development off Caithness

Atlantis Resources Ltd – which is building the world’s largest planned tidal energy project in the Pentland Firth – has raised another £5 million in working capital through a share placement.

Atlantis placed 12.5 million shares at 40p a share.

The cash will also be used to part-finance Atlantis’ contribution to MeyGen, its subsidiary company which is developing the Pentland Firth project and as working capital.

Atlantis Resources listed on the London stock exchange’s AIM index in February 2014, when it raised £12 million through the placing of 12.7 million new shares.

Atlantis group holds equity positions in a diverse portfolio of tidal stream development projects, which includes a stake of more than 86% in MeyGen Limited, the company developing the MeyGen project off Caithness.

The MeyGen project is the largest consented tidal stream power project in Europe, and is scheduled to commence generation in H1 2016.

Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive, Atlantis, commented: “We are delighted with the support of both new and existing investors for this placing.  The funds will enable us to progress to the construction stage of Phase 1A of the MeyGen project. 

“MeyGen is expected to be the world’s first commercial-scale multi-turbine tidal energy project to come on stream.  When fully completed, the project is expected to have 265 turbines submerged on the seabed, generating enough power for almost 200,000 homes in Scotland.”

This first phase of the MeyGen project will see the deployment of 4 turbines of 1.5MW each, the first of which is expected to commence power generation in 2016. It is expected that Phase 1A will be followed by further project build out at the site up to the full potential capacity of 398MW.

Atlantis Chairman John Neill, finance director Duncan Black and non-exec director Mike Lloyd all subscribed for 125,000 shares in the placing.