A HARROGATE businessman has launched the first prototype of a tidal technology which could provide more than a quarter of the energy used in Hull.
Andrew Laver, managing director of timber company Arnold Laver, set up renewables business Neptune Renewable Energy (NREL) with his former university tutor, Professor Jack Hardisty.
NREL, based in North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, has designed the Proteus NP100, which consists of a six-metre by six-metre turbine inside a floating chamber, which works equally well in ebb and flow currents.
The Proteus NP1000 demonstrator, which is 20 metres long and weighs more than 150 tonnes, is the culmination of five years’ work and it is expected to generate at least 1,000 MWh per year, he said.
Mr Laver said the device would provide more reliable and cheaper energy than wind turbines.
“It is not as cheap as oil or gas, but will produce electricity cheaper than onshore wind at less than £1 million per MW,” he said.
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