Pelamis, builder of the world’s first wave farm closes £5M round

Investment round completed

Pelamis Wave Power Limited, which recently completed building the world’s first wave farm off the coast of Portugal, has completed a £5 million funding round. The fundraising was supported by a number of existing shareholders including Emerald Technology Ventures, Statoilhydro Venture, BlackRock, Atmos and SPG Sustainable Performance Group.

The fundraising also included a £2 million investment from Scottish Enterprise’ s Scottish Venture Fund, a co-investment fund where the development agency invests alongside the private sector.

Jack Perry, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said, “The market for offshore wave energy is still in the very early stages, but we know there is huge market potential for cleaner, more efficient power. As a nation, Scotland is strongly positioned to lead this market, thanks to our abundance of natural energy resources.”

The fundraising will underpin Edinburgh-based Pelamis’ investment in core R&D and continuing development of its manufacturing processes and facilities. The company was spun out of the University of Edinburgh as Ocean Power Delivery Ltd before becoming Pelamis. The additional finance will enable it to accelerate the building of the first of its next generation of wave energy converters.

The machines for the Portuguese wave farm were fabricated in various locations in Scotland, before being exported to Portugal for final assembly and installation.

Each Pelamis machine can produce sufficient electricity each year to meet the annual average electricity demand of 500 UK households.