Bristol, England-based Marine Current Turbines has put its first commercial scale tidal turbine in the water, lowering a 1.2 megawatt SeaGen system into the fast flowing waters of Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland.

Marine Current Turbines plans to start delivering electricity to the grid in the summer, and has signed a five year deal to sell the power to the Dublin-based Electricity Supply Board.

Last month, the Electricity Supply Board, the Republic of Ireland's state-owned utility, led a $9.6 million funding for Marine Current Turbines, with Hazel Capital also participating, as well as existing shareholders EDF Energy, BankInvest and Triodos Bank (see Lighting, biofuels lead funding pack).

The Electricity Supply Board has operations in Northern Ireland as well as the rest of the U.K. and other parts of Europe.

The SeaGen has two rotors, each spanning 16 meters, that are expected to operate for up to 18 to 20 hours per day once its fully operational, providing enough renewable energy to power 1,000 homes.

Martin Wright, managing director of Marine Current Turbines is keeping an eye on things in Strangford, and said they've completed the first part of the installation, which involves setting it on the seabed.

"She's sitting there, with the tide going back and forth. She's in position," Wright told Cleantech.com. "What we've got to do is actually finish it by drilling in some pins, and just completing the machine."

Take a look at the installation here >>

He said the drilling should start today, with the final installation taking a few days to complete. Then comes a 12 week commissioning phase, where the SeaGen will only operate during daylight hours while its monitored.

"I can promise you it's a pretty challenging environment, for the mariners and all the rest of it," said Wright. "And it's actually happening in the narrows, which is the entrance between the Irish Sea and the vast body of the Strangford Lough itself."

"It's a neck where you get these highly accelerated flows, and it's a heck of tide that runs through here. And that's what we're seeking to harvest."

One of the company's partners in Canada — Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Maritime Tidal Energy — lost out on a bid to test the turbine in the strong tides of the Bay of Fundy (see Bay of Fundy to get three test turbines).

"It's a shame that the Canadians don't want to go with our technology," said Wright. "They've decided to go with much earlier stage technology."

The planned Bay of Fundy tidal power test site in Nova Scotia will use turbines from Annapolis, Md.'s UEK, Ireland's OpenHydro Group, and Vancouver, British Columbia-based Clean Current.

But Marine Current hasn't given up on Canada, signing a deal last year with BC Tidal Energy to deploy at least three SeaGen turbines in the waters off Vancouver.

The two companies plan to install the turbines by 2009, and Marine Current said it would be the first step in developing larger tidal farms along the coast of British Columbia.

Marine Current could face competition from Vancouver's Finavera Renewables (TSX: FVR), which has a number of projects in development on the west coast of the U.S. and Canada using wave power (see 100 MW California wave project gets prelim. approval).

Finavera's AquaBuOY wave energy devices are in the 250 kilowatt range.

Closer to home, Marine Current already has operations near its Bristol headquarters, running a smaller scale turbine off the North Devon coast since 2003.

The 300 kilowatt SeaFlow project is set to be decommissioned now that its bigger brother is being installed in Strangford Narrows.

But the company has plans for something even bigger in Wales.

In February, Marine Current teamed up with npower renewables, a subsidiary of Germany's RWE (OTC: RWEOY), for a 10.5 MW project using several SeaGen devices off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales.

Wright said his company anticipates that npower will come in as a co-funder on the project. That tidal farm could be commissioned by 2011 or 2012.

He said the company is also likely to look at Scotland for a power project, which would give Marine Current a shot at the just announced Saltire Prize (see Scotland launches $20M marine power competition).

The company's SeaGen system, with twin rotors mounted on extensions on either side of a tubular steel monopile, has some unique features that could give it a leg up over potential competitors.

Check out a look at a rendering of the unit here >>

The rotors, which can range from 15 to 20 meters, depending on local site conditions, can be pitched through 180 degrees in order to allow them to operate on both the ebb and the flood tides.

And there's no need for underwater maintenance, as the complete wing-like extensions with the rotor units can be raised above sea level.

With the data from the smaller scale turbine under its belt, Wright is confident that the company can work out any potential problems at Strangford.

"I think it would be foolish to suggest there won't be any bumps in the road, but, equally, I am expecting that we'll move quite rapidly through this next stage."

"Because we do have experience — we're not coming into it without any provenance at all," he said.