Morgan Stanley-Backed Atlantis Targets India, China for Tidal

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) — Atlantis Resources Corp., an ocean- current turbine maker backed by Morgan Stanley, plans to expand in China, India and South Korea after winning a bid in the U.K. to build the world’s largest tidal-power project.

Atlantis Resources may start building a 50 megawatt tidal farm by 2012 in Gujarat, a western Indian state, and conduct commercial-scale trials in South Korea, Timothy Cornelius, the chief executive officer, said an interview today.

“China’s the next big market for tidal energy,” Cornelius, 34, said in Singapore at the Clean Energy conference. “It has the most natural tidal resources in the world and can be home to more than 1,000 megawatts of tidal energy.”

Global production of electricity harnessing the ocean waves may climb ten-fold to as much as 300 megawatts in the next couple of years, said Cornelius, a former submersible engineer who splits his time between Singapore and London. The potential to produce marine power economically is about 24,000 megawatts, he said. It costs 2.5 million pounds ($4.01 million) per megawatt for a minimum 200 megawatt-tidal project, he said.

The Singapore-registered Atlantis Resources, which outsources turbine making, is seeking a global manufacturing site once tidal energy expands, Cornelius said. Producing turbines in China can halve costs for Atlantis, which has been approached by Chinese companies, he said.

Morgan Stanley, International Power Plc and Atlantis Resources won a contract to develop a tidal power project in waters off northern Scotland. The project, if it receives permits necessary for construction, could eventually generate 400 megawatts of electricity, the equivalent needed to power 400,000 homes, according to a statement on Oct. 27.

–Editors: Clyde Russell, Alexander Kwiatkowski.

Source: By Dinakar Sethuraman, Bloomberg
Story from: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-03/morgan-stanley-backed-atlantis-targets-india-china-for-tidal.html