Nova Innovation and Sabella have joined forces with the aim of developing tidal energy projects in the UK and France.

The Scottish and French firms have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to combine their expertise to drive the rapid scale-up of installed capacity in the tidal energy sector in both countries.

The partnership will include co-operation to drive down costs by sharing information on site development, technical expertise and environmental data to accelerate the time it takes to deploy projects and maximise cost efficiency of site development.

It will support the European Commission’s strategy to deliver 100MW of marine energy capacity by 2025 and 1GW by 2030.

Simon Forrest, CEO of Nova Innovation said: “We are delighted to formalise our cooperation with Sabella on site development of projects in France and the UK. Following a similar evolution to the commercialisation of the wind sector, this MoU creates a pathway to accelerate delivery of larger, high-impact projects to take tidal energy mainstream.”

The partnership has also been welcomed by the Scottish Government, with Michael Matheson, Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy adding: “I look forward to it delivering further opportunities for both companies – along with the wider sector – to grow, develop and realise the potential that tidal energy has in our journey to net zero.”