In just six years’ time an estimated 150,000 homes in the UK and France could be powered by clean, renewable energy from the waters around a five-square mile island in the English Channel.
Alderney, the third largest of the Channel Islands, is working on a strategy to revitalise its economy by not only becoming self-sustainable in energy by 2020, but also an important exporter of green energy to Europe.
One of the long-term plans behind this ambition is to harness the power of Alderney’s territorial waters – and in significant progress towards this goal has been made during the past two weeks.
Alderney Renewable Energy Limited (ARE) has confirmed a joint venture with tidal technology company OpenHyrdo to develop a 300MW tidal array.
It has also been granted a licence by British energy regulator Ofgem for a power interconnector between the island, UK and France to enable the energy to be exported and traded within European markets.
These milestones have been described as ‘critical pieces in the jigsaw’ of Alderney’s aim to build a sustainable economy based on renewable energy.
It already has phase one plans underway to create a bio digester facility on the island. Now it has received a double boost towards its second and third phase plans to host one of the largest renewable energy projects in European waters and export the energy created.
The on-island anaerobic digestion unit, which if approved is likely to be built later this year as Phase one of the programme, is anticipated to create 800KW of energy by recycling farm and residential waste.
On completion of Phases two and three, there will be enough to power the 1,900 homes on the island and to save Alderney’s economy up to £200,000 a year on the current energy costs from diesel generators.
In the longer term, the tidal array, anticipated to consist of 150 turbines of 2 MW each, is expected to generate enough power for 150,000 homes.
The licensed power interconnector between UK and France will provide the route to market for the joint venture to export and trade this energy, earning significant revenues for the States of Alderney.