The much-delayed tidal energy centre off St Catherine’s Point has been delayed again — this time by coronavirus.
A request for an urgent delegated decision was put forward by the council’s Regeneration team seeking the funding in the Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (PTEC). The urgency was due to a limited time offer of grant funding — but ‘financial uncertainties’ caused by the coronavirus have delayed the decision.
Cabinet members Cllrs Stuart Hutchinson (resources) and Wayne Whittle (business and regeneration) said:
“The council will delay the decision on the further loan investment until a future date when there are fewer variables to consider in assessing the overall deliverability of the project.”
The usual procedure of a delegated decision was not applied because it would have taken too long and would have lost the opportunity to secure match funding.
A loan of £244,000 needed to be in place by the end of March to secure £366,000 worth of funding from the European Union Tiger Project to keep the PTEC running — which has been in ‘hibernation’ since 2017 due to changes in government policy.
The change meant small investment companies like PTEC were up against more established, bigger businesses who had been the recipient of government funding before, meaning it was harder to secure grants.
In that time, problems with leases, licences and planning applications lapsing, or about to, meant funding was desperately needed to keep the project going or there was a ‘major risk’ it would be forced back to square one or not go ahead at all — with the council losing its £1 million investment.
The tidal energy generation project is located south of St. Catherine’s Point and is hoped it will put the Island at the forefront of marine energy — with interest in the project shown by leading turbine developers and supply chain companies.
The Isle of Wight Council hold 15% of the shares and helped to start the project back in March 2013, aiming to draw in private sector funds, growing the Island’s economy and supporting local renewable energy generation.
Funding in PTEC would have allowed the necessary leases and marine licences to be renewed within the next 12 months and enable further phases of work to begin.
While the decision has been postponed, the council has said it will continue to work with PTEC, the Tiger Project and other stakeholders to help inform any future decision.
The council hope to make the Island net carbon neutral by 2030, after declaring a ‘climate emergency’ in July last year, and believes tidal stream energy would provide carbon-free power to a quarter of Island homes.
Good. We don’t want it. Build the Severn Barage instead and the top can be used as a replacement for the old Severn Bridge.
Agree, we don’t want to waste time now with stupid green for the sake of it, projects. Wave power is to expensive to keep maintained for as we see with ships, all parts in the water need constant cleaning.
Same with that con of a bio digester at Arreton, scores of drivers sat in huge tractors, pulling massive trailers blight the narrow island roads in the Summer carting greenery especially grown for it, rather than growing food we could keep or sell.
It is ONLY because it is heavily subsidised by the EU that it is in operation, as it would never ever support the cost of buying, maintaining the huge amounts of tractors and their drivers, as well as paying the farmers for the crop along with staff at the site. When the UK voted out of the EU then a German firm took it on, to keep the subsidises coming.
All for viable cost effective green energy like windmills in the right location, but being ‘green’ when in real terms it is often not, just ‘looks’ the part, is so very wrong and deceitful but easily lapped up by idiots who fall for such ploys, and there are many of them about.
Too many twee programs like Countryfile etc filling the happy brigade with soft, fluffy new stories, where the real world is light years away.
But as the song said, ‘Do you want the truth or something beautiful’ and most prefer the latter now. Post CV economy will likely change that, every cloud……
A complete waste of money, uneconomic and an ecological disaster just to appease a group of green washers at the Council. If the Council care so much about the environment then ensure all new homes are carbon neutral, harvest water from houses, use the big dollops of money coming its way in ensuring all existing housing took solar, encourage heat pump installations, don’t wreck another pristine part of the island with an industrial estate and think it doesn’t matter because it is over the sea… This is a second rate site, with unproven operators and a group of councillors with a low level of knowledge about the tidal energy industry.
When PTEC was set up the IWC only took a 15% share and Perpetuus Energy Ltd, 85%. The IWC put £1m cash loan plus at least another £1m again in officers hours, cost of leases etc. Now Perpetuus Energy Ltd (PE Ltd)) is asking the IWC for another loan. Why isn’t the single director of PE Ltd putting up the finance if he really believes the PTEC project is viable?
If the loan is made, money from the TIGER project (60%) is forthcoming to reinstate PTEC to full consenting stage then the final amount of funding needs to be found from private investors. If the estimated cost is £125m then approx £50m is still required. As TIGER monies are paid in arrears the £50m of private investors monies would have to be in place before TIGER money would be released. In today’s climate with the OVOID-19 pandemic why would investors want to risk putting money into it?
There are far more pressing priorities for the IWC then to loan £244,000 to a high risk project.
The IWC may lose the original investment but should not be bullied into loaning another almost quarter of a million pounds into a project that should surely fail.
The IOWC is always pleading poverty and making cuts to services, yet having already wasted 1 million pounds on this scheme it looks like it is going to waste another 1/4 million, without any guarantee of a return, all so that the council can flaunt its green credentials. This is the economics of the mad House.