Aquamarine Power was a

wave energy Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power is a wave energy converter (WEC). Waves are generated by wind p ...

company, founded in 2005 to commercialise the

Oyster wave energy converter The Oyster is a hydro-electric wave energy device that uses the motion of ocean waves to generate electricity. It is made up of a Power Connector Frame (PCF), which is bolted to the seabed, and a Power Capture Unit (PCU). The PCU is a hinged buoyan ...

, a device to capture energy from near-shore waves. The company's head offices were in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland. The company ceased to trade on 20 November 2015.

History

The Oyster concept originated from studies conducted in 2003 by the wave power research team at

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

, led by Professor Trevor Whittaker. The studies were co-funded by the

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to universi ...

and Allan Thomson, who had previously founded and led the UK's first commercial wave energy company,

Wavegen Wavegen Limited (later Voith Hydro Wavegen Limited) was a wave energy company based in Inverness, Scotland. It was founded in 1990 by Allan Thomson. It was sold to Voith Hydro in 2005, and they closed the company in 2013. History In 2000, Waveg ...

. In 2005, Thomson founded Aquamarine Power to progress the commercialisation of the Oyster device. In 2007 Scottish & Southern Energy subsidiary Renewable Technology Ventures Limited invested in Aquamarine with a further investment in 2010. In February 2009, Aquamarine Power and Queen's University signed an agreement to extend their R&D partnership to 2014. In February 2009, Aquamarine Power signed an agreement with renewable energy company

Airtricity SSE Airtricity (previously Eirtricity) is an energy company founded in Ireland in 1997, and now a subsidiary SSE plc. SSE Airtricity supplies and distributes electricity and gas to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. History The compa ...

, a subsidiary of Scottish & Southern Energy, to develop marine energy sites using the Oyster system. In November 2009, the first full-scale, 315 kW, demonstrator Oyster began producing power when it was launched at the

European Marine Energy Centre The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is a UKAS accredited test and research center focusing on wave and tidal power development based in the Orkney Islands, UK. The centre provides developers with the opportunity to test full-scale grid ...

( EMEC) on

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

. In March 2012, Aquamarine announced plans to install 50 Oyster devices on the seabed off the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coas ...

in Scotland (provisionally dubbed the Orkney Wave Power Station). The project was intended to be able to supply electricity to more than 38,000 homes (2.4 MW in installed capacity).

Key people

The company's chief executive officer was Martin McAdam, who joined in 2008. The company was advised by Trevor Whittaker, inventor of the Oyster concept, and by

Stephen Salter Stephen Hugh Salter, (born 7 December 1938) is Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter duck wave energy device. Salter is also a proponent of geoengineering and is responsib ...

, inventor of the Salter's Duck.

Investors

In November 2009, Aquamarine Power announced an investment of £11 million in the business. The principal investor during this investment round was

ABB Group ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...

who invested £8 million. The other investors during the round included Scottish and Southern Energy who invested £2.7 million with other historical investors making up the balance of £300k. The investors in the business include: ABB, SSE, Sigma Capital Group, Scottish Enterprise and others.

Awards

Aquamarine Power won several awards. In 2008, it was named Emerging Technology Promoter of the Year in the

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

Euromoney Global Renewable Energy Awards. In 2009, it was named Innovator of the Year by the British Renewable Energy Association. It also received the Innovation Award for Energy at the ''Engineer'' Technology and Innovation Awards 2009 and Scottish Green Awards for the Best Green Industry SME. In 2010 it was listed on the GlobalCleantech 100 list.

Administration

On 28 October 2015, BBC News reported that Aquamarine Power had called in administrators. No buyer was found and less than a month later, on 20 November, the company ceased to trade with the loss of fourteen jobs.

References