EarthTechling has a report on tidal power developments in Wales - Tidal Power Coming To Wales, Thanks To E.U..

Scotland might be the leader, but other parts of the United Kingdom are jumping on the tidal-energy bandwagon. The latest entry from this sceptered isle: Wales, a country of just 3 million people, but with some 750 miles of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea. The government there said a demonstration tidal-energy system – Wales’ “first full-scale tidal stream energy generator” – was going forward thanks to £6.4 million in funding from the European Union.

In its announcment, Wales called the 1.2-megawatt (MW) capacity DeltaStream a “unique device,” invented by a local Pembrokeshire engineer, Richard Ayre. The government said the contraption “sits on the sea bed without foundations and uses tidal currents to generate clean electricity” and “has been designed to minimise impact on the environment.” The device will be sited in 2012 in Ramsay Sound, Pembrokeshire, after which it is expected to provide a sustainable source of power to the people of St David’s during a yearlong demonstration period.

Total cost of the project, to be carried out by the Tidal Energy, is pegged at £11 million, with £4.5 million in private funding coming from the Cardiff-based renewable energy company Eco2. According to David Williams, chief executive of Eco2, the DeltaStream device “combines innovative blade design with portability and high efficiency.”

While this is the first full-scale tidal power project coming to Wales, more should be on the way. As we reported earlier this year, Marine Current Turbines (MCT) and RWE npower renewables announced that they have filed an application for permission to install a 10-MW array of tidal stream turbines off the coast of Wales in 2015.

The BBC reports another British tidal power project has reached pilot stage - DeltaStream tidal power Pembrokeshire trial approved.

A tidal power scheme designed to generate electricity for 1,000 homes in Pembrokeshire has been approved for a 12-month trial.

The 1.2MW project at Ramsey Sound, near St Davids, features three generators that sit on a triangular frame.

Invented by Pembrokeshire engineer Richard Ayre, the project has more than £500,000 in EU grants.

The DeltaStream device project has landed consents from both the UK and the assembly government.

Cardiff-based Tidal Energy Ltd claims its tidal generator is at the cutting edge of green technology, with three separate horizontal axis turbines mounted on a common triangular frame.

Each turbine has a 15m diameter rotor which turns in the tidal flow and can also turn with the tide, generating electricity on both the ebb and flood tides.

The firm said the device would be easy to manufacture, does not require drilling or piling into the seabed and would have a minimum environmental impact.

TreeHugger reports on a large new offshore wind farm planned for Wales - 750 MW Offshore Wind Farm Approved for Wales.

he pound may be tanking against world currencies, credit may be scarce, and very real fears of deep economic recession abound, but that hasn't stopped Npower Renewables' plans for a giant new wind farm off the Welsh coast. Approved this week by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Gwynt y Môr wind farm will be located 10 miles offshore from Llandudno, Wales. The tech details (such as they are) are as follows:

Expected to begin feeding electricity into the grid in 2012, the 750 MW, 250 turbine wind farm will (when combined three nearby, smaller wind farms) create enough power for 680,000 homes. Construction of onshore portions of the projection should begin in 2009, with offshore portions commencing in 2011.

With the approval of this project, the total offshore projects with planning approval has risen to 4.5 GW, according to the British Wind Energy Association. In October, the UK surpassed Denmark as the world’s number one offshore wind power producer.