Alstom Hydro has signed a licencing cooperation agreement with Clean Current Power Systems Incorporated, a private Canadian company specialised in the design and testing of tidal energy technology.

According to the main environmental regulatory bodies, this emerging energy source will soon play a significant role in renewable energy power generation. If all eligible tidal stream sites worldwide were equiped with this technology, a potential 100 TWh of electricity, representing the equivalent of the consumption of 20 million western European households or 3 times the total consumption of Denmark, could be produced annually (sources: International Energy Agency, IEA).

In addition to its energy production potential, tidal stream power technology presents numerous advantages to the environment. It is clean, natural, invisible, and does not emit any greenhouse gases. Moreover, being a 100% predictable and inexhaustible energy source, it represents a durable new energy supply to respond to growing electricity demand.

The terms of the agreement between Alstom Hydro and Clean Current Power Systems Incorporated include an exclusive worldwide license for ocean and tidal stream applications for Clean Current’s patented technology*. The agreement also includes provisions for continued close cooperation between both parties in order to further develop technology, deploy demonstrator units and subsequently position Alstom Hydro as both an equipment and turnkey provider for tidal stream farms. Alstom plans to commercialise its first tidal stream products by 2012.