Friday 06 March 2009, The Hague - Minister Maria van der Hoeven (Economic Affairs) would like to invest in a demonstration project with tidal current energy at the Marine Terminal at Total Refinery near Vlissingen-East.

The minister explained on Tuesday that the current feed-inn tariff for low head hydropower projects is also applicable for tidal energy projects. That could be favorable especially for the exploitation of a proposed tidal barrage scheme in the Brouwersdam. However the demonstrator project at Total is too small to benefit from the current feed in tariff. GroenLinks requested a wider scope for the funding scheme. Minister Van der Hoeven rejected this. "This will affect other hydropower projects like Brouwersdam and Borgharen." Still the minister would like to support new developments in tidal current energy. She has agreed to enter into discussions with the sector to see what type of funding is required.