Irish tidal energy company OpenHydro and Airtricity's sister company SSE Renewables have been projects farms off the northern coast of Scotland.
The awards were made by the UK's Crown Estate, which awarded 10 areas in the Pentland Firth and around Orkney to seven companies.
Dublin-based SSE Renewables, owned by Britain's Scottish & Southern Energy, is involved in four of the licences.
In one, it has formed a joint venture with OpenHydro called Cantick Head Tidal Development to develop their site. The companies say this project has the potential to provide enough energy to power more than 130,000 homes.
OpenHydro is an energy technology company which designs and manufactures marine turbines for generating renewable energy from tidal streams.
