Atlantis Resources Corp., a maker of tidal power turbines, has acquired wave project operator Current Resources Ltd. from Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley will become the largest shareholder of Atlantis, which is based in Singapore, and will have boardroom representation, Atlantis said today in a statement on PR Newswire. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
“Tidal current energy is probably the most exciting, viable and scalable means of generating renewable energy imaginable,'' Timothy Cornelius, chief executive officer of Atlantis, said in the statement. The combination of the two companies will be able to “manage major tidal current renewable energy projects globally,'' the statement said.
Atlantis has developed two families of underwater turbines, one called Nereus for shallow water and another called Solon for deep sea installation, said the statement. A 150-kilowatt Nereus turbine was tested earlier this year at San Remo, Australia.
The company is evaluating possible projects in Pentland Firth, off northern Scotland, and in Canada in the Bay of Fundy on the Atlantic coast and British Columbia in the west, the statement said.
Ocean energy is estimated at between 2,000 and 4,000 terrawatt hours annually, with the U.S. and U.K. having the potential to cover about 15 percent of their combined needs, the statement said.
Wave energy turbines harness the vertical motion of waves caused by wind while tidal current power installations use the horizontal flow of water, or tides, caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.
