Prudential to invest up to 100 mln stg in UK tidal scheme

* Project to cost around 1 bln stg in total

* Will have capacity of 320 MW, should start up in 2018

LONDON, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Financial services group Prudential Plc (HKSE: 2378.HK - news) said on Monday it would invest up to 100 million pounds ($161 million) in Britain's Swansea Bay tidal lagoon project in Wales.

Construction on the 1-billion-pound project developed by Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd is to begin next year.

The facility will have an installed capacity of 320 megawatts and is expected to be completed in 2018.

Prudential said its long-term insurance funds will provide the funding through its European asset management arm, M&G Investments.

This "marks another major milestone for the Swansea Bay project and is a clear endorsement of our vision to introduce tidal lagoon infrastructure into the UK's low carbon energy mix," Mark Shorrock, chief executive of Tidal Lagoon Power Ltd, said in a statement.

(1 U.S. dollar = 0.6198 British pound) (Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Jason Neely)