Aquamarine has a total funding requirement of approximately GBP50m to take Oyster through to commercialisation. This will be raised in stages, with a second fundraising round due to commence shortly. Aquamarine expects to have a fully commissioned commercially available wave farm in place by 2014.
Earlier in August, Aquamarine deployed a full scale demonstrator of its Oyster wave energy converter at its testing berth at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland.
It is currently working to connect Oyster to sub-sea pipelines which will deliver high pressure fresh water to an onshore turbine. It is scheduled to begin generating power to enable full scale offshore testing to begin later this year. Testing is expected to take up to two years, the company said.
The proceeds of the fundraising will be used to fund the testing programme and for general working capital purposes.
Oyster has already demonstrated that it can produce electricity on a commercial scale during onshore testing at the New and Renewable Energy Centre, near Newcastle.
Martin McAdam, CEO of Aquamarine Power, said: “Raising substantial funds in these exceptionally difficult market conditions is an incredible achievement for Aquamarine.
“It proves that there is considerable investor appetite for renewable energy companies. Aquamarine has a great team in place with the technological and commercial know-how to take Oyster all the way through to the finishing line.”
Aquamarine already has an agreement in place with Airtricity, the renewable energy division of Scottish and Southern Energy to develop up to 1,000MW of marine energy sites by 2020 using Oyster technology.
