FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 19, 2011

CONTACT:  Sean O’Neill (301) 869-3790

Carolyn Elefant (202) 297-6100

$59 Million for FY 12 DOE Water Power R&D Program

MHK to receive $34 million for research, development and demonstration

President Obama is expected to sign into law this week the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 omnibus appropriations measure, which was passed by the House on Friday and the Senate on Saturday. The appropriations measure combines the nine remaining spending bills, including the Energy and Water bill, and has garnered large bipartisan support.

The bill provides $59 million for the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Water Power R&D Program, with $34 million specifically allocated for Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) technology research, development and demonstration and $25 million for conventional hydropower. Within the total funding amount, at least $10 million is to be used to build necessary infrastructure, including environmental performance monitoring, at National Marine Renewable Energy Centers.

“The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition recognizes the tireless work and support of the House and Senate Appropriation Committees to fund MHK research and development at a level that will contribute to promising achievements toward commercialization over the next year,” stated Sean O’Neill, OREC’s President. “MHK technologies, which draw from our nation’s most abundant and reliable natural resource – ocean and current energy, will play a vital role in diversifying and securing our nation’s energy supply as we move into the future. We very much look forward to working with the Department of Energy, our member companies and universities to accelerate the technology development necessary to reach our goal of 15 Gigawatts of installed ocean MHK energy by 2030.”

The FY 2012 funding level for MHK represents a three-fold increase over FY 2011 levels for MHK technology R&D and related NMREC test center activities.

OREC seeks to secure increased federal funding for MHK technology commercialization efforts by our member companies.  The imminent passage of the FY 12 omnibus appropriations bill is another positive step toward accomplishing that goal.

About the Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition

The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition (OREC) is the only national trade association exclusively dedicated to promoting marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy technologies from clean, renewable ocean resources. Founded in April of 2005, the Coalition has grown to over 60 members including technology developers, consultants, law firms, investor-owned utilities, publicly owned utilities, universities, and scientific and engineering firms. The coalition is working with industry leaders, academic scholars, and other interested NGO’s to encourage ocean renewable technologies and raise awareness of their vast potential to help secure an affordable, reliable, environmentally friendly energy future.

OREC seeks a legislative and regulatory regime in the U.S. that fosters the growth of ocean renewable technologies, their commercial development, and support in the race to capture the rich energy potential of our oceans. While other countries have already deployed viable, operating, power generating projects using the emission-free power of ocean waves, currents, and tidal forces, the U.S. is only beginning to acknowledge the importance of these technologies.

OREC Corporate and Academic Members

Alden Research Laboratory, Inc.

Aquamarine Power

Battery Ventures

Beveridge & Diamond

Biosonics

Central Lincoln People’s Utility District

Chadbourne & Park, LLP

Chevron Technology Ventures

Columbia Power Technologies

Dresser Rand

HDR/DTA

Ecology & Environment, Inc.

Ecomerit Technologies

Florida Atlantic University

FluMill

Garrad Hassan

Kleinschmidt

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Long Island Power Authority

New England Marine Renewable Energy Center

Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory

University of Michigan

Millbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, LLP

Natural Currents

Ocean Power Technologies

Open Hydro

Ocean Renewable Power Company

Ocean Wave Energy Company

Oregon Iron Works

Oregon State University

Oregon Wave Energy Trust

Pacific Gas & Electric Company

Pelamis Wave Power Limited (Scotland)

Puget Sound Energy

Pierce Atwood, LLP

Reluminati

RenewableEnergyWorld.com

Renewable Energy Composite Solutions

Resolute Marine Energy, Inc.

SAIC

Scottish Development International

Sea Mammal Research Unit Ltd.

SMI, Inc.

SML Consulting

Snohomish Public Utility District

Sound & Sea Technology, Inc.

Southern Company

The Stella Group

Stoel Rives, LLP

Tacoma Power

Teledyne

Tetra Tech

TRC Companies

Turner Hunt Ocean Renewables, LLC

University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

Van Ness Feldman

Verdant Power

Wavebob, Ltd.

WaveStar Energy (Denmark)

Yakutat Power

Strategic Partners

Northwest Public Power Association

RenewableEnergyAccess.com

Scottish Development International

ACORE’s annual Phase II Policy Forum has never been more important. With an industry whose growth and economic potential is being called into question, Phase II will be a critical meeting geared to formulate an over-arching strategy for the continued success and support of the industry. The forum will explore issues of national and energy security, economic development, capital raising, and jobs for the many under and unemployed Americans.  The thought leaders from the global stage will join leaders from the national and state level to assess the status of renewable energy policy today, the range of policy options available, and help to advise on a best case policy framework for 2012 and beyond.  Your attendance is critical to formulating a well-rounded energy policy for America’s future.

The MHK Roadmap itself can be found here and the Executive summary is available here.

Orkney, Thursday 11^th August: Atlantis Resources Corporation, the international marine energy developer, has connected its 1MW AR1000 tidal turbine to the grid at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland.  The AR1000 becomes Scotland’s first grid-connected, commercial-scale tidal turbine, marking a crucial milestone in the development of the marine energy industry.

The AR1000 is currently the world’s most powerful single-rotor tidal turbine, rated to dispatch 1MW of predictable power at a water velocity of 2.65m/s.  Its 18m rotor diameter also makes it one of the largest turbines ever built, standing 22.5 meters high and weighing 1,500 tonnes.  A full commissioning programme is now underway at EMEC and is expected to take three months.

The three-bladed turbine will be tested over the next two years, ahead of commercial system roll-out into the MeyGen project in Scotland’s Pentland Firth.

Neil Kermode, Managing Director of the European Marine Energy Centre, says: “It is wonderful to see this commercial-scale tidal turbine connect to the grid from Orkney waters.  The marine energy industry in Scotland continues to gather pace and is working towards world-leading targets in terms of deployment and generation of renewable energy.  My congratulations go to the entire team at Atlantis.”

Atlantis’ AR1000 turbine design draws heavily from development and testing of its earlier two-rotor, AK1000 turbine, which commenced in 2009.  Whilst waiting for delivery of a set of standard GRP rotor blades, fabricated in the UK earlier this year, the company completed a detailed analysis of Scottish, UK and global component supply chain status for commercial production and roll-out.  The decision was taken, in conjunction with customers and project partners, to deploy the nacelle in a single rotor set, AR 1000, configuration.

Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis, says: “I am very proud of the team at Atlantis. They have overcome a number of considerable challenges in this development programme, fine-tuning the nacelle retrieval process at the same time.  By connecting a 1MW single rotor device in Scottish waters to the national grid, they have achieved something that has never been done before.  Our business enters the next phase of its evolution in great shape and I want to thank the huge ecosystem of technology partners, suppliers, contractors and industry figureheads who have supported us to date.

“Following a blade manufacturing fault in 2010, we switched suppliers and reverted to standard GRP blades.  We also took the opportunity to review the entire tidal power component supply chain in conjunction with our customers and opted to focus on a turbine design that employs only proven and readily accessible components and can therefore be manufactured at scale.  We will continue to invest in the AK1000 research and development programme as the supply chain matures but our customers need commercial reliability and that’s what the AR1000 system can give them today.”

Norco GRP Ltd of Poole (blades) joins a UK-dominated supply chain for the AR1000, alongside Soil Marine Dynamics in Newcastle (nacelle), Isleburn Engineering in Invergordon (gravity base structure and system assembly), Tata Steel in Scunthorpe, Wichita in Bedford (shaft brake), Pilgrim in Oldham (hub assembly), Hallin Marine (offshore services), Leask Marine in Orkney (commercial diving) and IX Survey in Edinburgh (marine survey).

About Atlantis Resources Corporation

Atlantis Resources Corporation is an international marine energy company with offices in London, Singapore and Sydney.  Its latest turbine, the 1MW AR1000 is deployed at the EMEC facility in Scotland.

Together with its partners, Atlantis is developing some of the world’s first tidal power generation sites, including in the Pentland Firth, Scotland, the gulfs of Khambhat and Kutch in Gujarat, India, and at the Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy, Nova Scotia.

www.atlantisresourcescorporation.com

About EMEC

The European Marine Energy Centre (established in 2003) is the only centre of its kind to offer developers of both wave and tidal energy converters the opportunity to test in the world class sea conditions around Orkney, Scotland.

The Centre was established with around £30 million of funding from the Scottish Government, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Carbon Trust, the UK Government, Scottish Enterprise, the European Union and Orkney Islands Council.

www.emec.org.uk

About MeyGen Limited

MeyGen is a joint venture between independent power generator International Power plc (45%), investment bank Morgan Stanley (45%), and tidal technology provider Atlantis Resources Corporation (10%), dedicated to developing the Inner Sound tidal site in the Pentland Firth, Scotland.

The project, subject to obtaining all relevant statutory consents, is one of the biggest projects of its kind and is estimated to be able to generate up to 400MW, which is the equivalent electricity used by approximately 400,000 homes, purely from the energy generated from the tides.

www.meygen.com

The authority said that over the next few years NOAA will measure and model water levels and three-dimensional current, salinity and temperature fields within Cook Inlet to identify regions with promise for the generation of hydrokinetic energy.

You can read more in Renewable Energy Magazine’s article here.

This latest deployment is an autonomous PowerBuoy^(R) designed and manufactured by OPT under the US Navy’s Littoral Expeditionary Autonomous PowerBuoy (LEAP) program for coastal security and maritime surveillance.  Read more about this in the press release here.

Yesterday the United States House of Representatives passed the Budget Control Act of 2011 (S. 365) the votes were tallied at 269 to 161. 174 Republicans & 95 Democrats voted in favor of the bill with 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats voting against it. The Senate voted in favor of the bill today (74-26).  Now President Obama must sign the bill by 11:59 PM Tuesday August 2^nd to avoid default; the President has stated that he will sign the bill to make into law.

S. 365 is broken down into five sections: (section five is in regards to Pell Grants and Student Loans)

Title I:

A ten-year discretionary spending limit through 2021, which will cut the deficit by $917 billion.

Title 2:

Requires a vote passage on the “Joint resolution proposing a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution.” This will be done by in the months of October and December 31, 2011.

Title 3:

“Presidential Modification of the Debt Ceiling: Upon enactment the Budget Control Act of 2011, if the president certifies that the national debt is within $100 billion of the statutory limit, the Treasury would be authorized to borrow an additional $900 billion, subject to a disapproval resolution in Congress.  Under the bill, the debt limit would automatically be increased by $400 billion upon submission of a certification from the president, with the rest of the $900 billion subject to the outcome of the disapproval resolution.  The legislation would authorize Congress to consider a resolution of disapproval of the debt limit increase and provide expedited procedures for consideration of the joint resolution of disapproval.”

Title 4:

Establishing of a “super committee” (Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction) a twelve-person bi-partisan committee whose goal it is to reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion between 2012 and 2021.

Source: gop.gov The Budget Control Act of 2011