A Scottish wave energy pioneer has won a significant vote of confidence from investors following a successful trial of technology that could help cut emissions associated with oil and gas production.
Edinburgh-based Mocean Energy raised £730,000 in a funding round supported by existing investors led by the Equity Gap operation.
Mocean expects to use the funding to support the commercial roll-out of its Blue Star wave energy machine, which has generated interest in the oil and gas sector.
READ MORE: Scottish firm that plans to generate energy from gravity in disused mines wins backing
It reckons the machine could be used to provide power for subsea facilities in a way that will allow firms to reduce usage of gas turbines and the length of cabling they have to lay.
After completing a successful sea trial of its Blue X machine off Orkney last year, Mocean expects to launch the product commercially in 2023. It is also working on the development of a machine that would be expected to generate more power, with trials and rollout targeted for 2024-25.
On its website Mocean says both machines use a hinged raft with a unique geometry that improves performance by up to 300 percent compared to traditional hinged rafts and increases survivability by diving through the largest waves.
Managing director Cameron McNatt said yesterday: “Both products are aimed at opportunities in the oil and gas energy transition, defence, offshore wind, and ocean science markets where they can be used to provide power to remote subsea equipment, robotics, and monitoring systems.”
READ MORE: Oil giants hail ScotWind success amid claims huge boost to supply chain in prospect
He added: “The equity funding is a tremendous boost and will allow us to accelerate our product roll out.”
Equity Gap director Fraser Lusty said the investment business had been hugely impressed with the progress made by Mocean through the testing phase.
Mocean's progress will be followed closely in Scotland.
Former first minister Alex Salmond said technologies such as wave energy could turn Scotland into the “Saudi Arabia of marine power”. Scottish wave energy hopefuls Pelamis Wave Power and Aquamarine Power fell into administration in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Mr McNatt founded Mocean in 2015 with Chris Retzler, who was a co-founder of Pelamis and its Principal Scientist. Both completed PhDs at the University of Edinburgh.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel