THE company behind what is billed as the world’s most powerful tidal turbine has said it has completed successful testing days after a flagship project in the sector suffered a big setback.

Scotrenewables said its floating generator had produced energy for seven days continuously during trials off Orkney last month.

The SR2000 generated around seven per cent of the power needed on the islands.

On Monday Atlantis Resources said the Government had rejected its application for subsidy support for the Meygen tidal energy project in the Pentland Firth.

Meygen had planned to install 49 turbines on the seabed in a move it said would support the creation of more than 5,000 jobs.

The Government agreed to provide support for 11 projects involving other renewables technologies such as offshore wind, which required less subsidy per unit of output.

Scotrenewables business development manager James Murray said: “We feel our technology and industry has the potential to bring its costs in line with other forms of low carbon energy but it’s still at an earlier stage.”

He added: “We will be working over the next year to find a solution with other stakeholders in the industry to have an appropriate level of revenue support.”

Separately, the state-funded Wave Energy Scotland has awarded around £660,000 to 13 projects that aim to increase the cost effectiveness of wave energy technology.