UK-based financial services giant Prudential is ready to invest as much as £100m for the construction of the proposed £1bn ($1.6bn) Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon energy project.

The 320MW facility will be located across Swansea Bay in Wales.

The construction of the project, which is being built by Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay, is expected to start by 2015.

Expected to be operational by 2018, the facility will generate more than 495GWh of power annually for 120 years, sufficient enough for 120,000 homes.

Bloomberg quoted Prudential chief executive officer Tidjane Thiam as saying: “Such investments provide our customers with strong and sustainable returns, create good jobs and increase productivity and economic competitiveness.”

UK renewable power firm Good Energy Group invested £500,000 in the project in May this year.

The first phase of the project’s development is estimated to meet around 8% of UK’s electricity requirements, reports The Telegraph UK.

Tidal Lagoon Power chief executive Mark Shorrock was quoted as saying by the BBC: “Securing the backing of a world-renowned investment institution marks another major milestone for the Swansea Bay project and is a clear endorsement of our vision to introduce tidal lagoon infrastructure into the UK’s low carbon energy mix.

“Tidal lagoons will employ British industry to harness a British natural resource and return profits to British institutions”.