A wave power company has gone into administration after failing to secure enough funding to develop its technology.
Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power (PWP) designs, manufactures and operates wave energy converters which it has been testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
The company, which employs more than 50 staff, had been seeking a "strategic partner capable of taking the world's most advanced wave energy technology into serial production", according to its website.
A statement released today said: "The directors of Pelamis regret to announce that they have been unable to secure the additional funding required for further development of the company's market leading wave energy technology.
"As a result of this the board has reluctantly moved to appoint an administrator to assess the options for securing the future for the business and employees of Pelamis."
It added: "Pelamis is the world's most advanced wave energy technology and company.
"The combination of over 350 man-years of experience in the team, some 15,000 hours of real grid connected test data and intensive parallel R&D work gives Pelamis a unique platform from which to develop and demonstrate the viability of its technology for commercial deployment at scale.
"The directors and employees of Pelamis are dedicated to the success of this revolutionary technology, and are committed to working with the administrator when appointed, the Scottish and UK Governments and any future partners to ensure its success."
In July last year, energy giant E.ON announced it was pulling out of a partnership with Pelamis at the EMEC, citing delays in the progress of wave technology.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "This is a sad day for Pelamis and an anxious time for employees and their families.
"Clearly the news that PWP has gone into administration is a matter of real regret. Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government have been working closely with the company and its shareholders to try and find a way forward and help support the company in its current form.
"The Scottish Government stands ready to engage with the company and we will support affected employees through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE).
"Early stage technologies such as this can be difficult, but the development of wave energy has been blighted by the uncertainty facing the energy sector more widely, following reforms of the UK's electricity market. Our belief in the future success of wave energy is undiminished."
Gina Hanrahan, climate and energy policy officer at WWF Scotland, said: "It's a real shame to see Pelamis put into administration. Marine renewables have the potential to play an important role in our future electricity mix, helping to cut climate emissions and deliver investment and jobs around our coastline. Harnessing the power of the waves is a challenge we must rise to if we're to wean ourselves off fossil fuels."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article