MCT is very proud of the environmental benefits that the company's technology will bring both in terms of reducing carbon emissions, and it's minimal environmental footprint. The device is almost entirely submerged, and so has little visual impact, and it creates no noise audible to humans (although it does create modest noise underwater which is important to help marine wild-life have an awareness of the presence of the turbine).  We take our environmental commitment very seriously and would not want see our positive contribution to the environment undermined in any way.

Rigorous and detailed environmental impact studies, carried out by independent consultants, suggest that the technology is most unlikely to pose a threat to fish or marine mammals, or the marine environment in which they live. A major monitoring programme is already under way  for the SeaGen device installed in Strangford Narrows which will build upon this work; further information can be found specific to this on the SeaGeneration Ltd website.

Moreover it is worth noting that SeaGen's rotors rotate comparatively slowly at around 10 to 15 rotations per minute, where as a ship's propeller by comparison typically runs 10 times as fast - and moreover SeaGen’s rotors stay in one place whereas some ships move much faster than sea creatures can swim. Therefore the risk of harming marine wild-life is thought to be extremely small bearing in mind that virtually all marine creatures that choose to swim in areas with strong currents have excellent perceptive powers and agility, giving them the ability to successfully avoid collisions with static or slow-moving underwater obstructions. Marine growth is also severely inhibited by the strength of the currents, so there is little feeding to be done in the vicinity.