EON Supplier Pelamis Looks for Industrial Player for Wave Farms
Pelamis Wave Power Ltd., a U.K. maker of ocean energy technology, is looking to partner with a “strong” industrial company in the next year to help bring its technology to market and deliver on its projects.
The company, venture capital-funded for about nine years, now needs a different solution in order to have the capability to deliver bigger orders and projects, Per Hornung Pedersen, chief executive officer of Edinburgh-based Pelamis, said in an interview in London.
“We’re not looking just for money but for other competencies as well, such as manufacturing and marketing expertise,” said Pedersen, who worked for three years at the Indian wind power company Suzlon Energy Ltd. “I wouldn’t rule anything out but intuitively I think the right solution is for one strong industrial player to team up with Pelamis.”
Pelamis has hired Ernst & Young to facilitate the process and says it’s looking at industrial players across the globe. Last month’s proposed increase to the number of Renewable Obligation Certificates, or ROCs, offered to wave energy generators in England will help it find a partner as it has created more certainty and transparency, Pedersen said.
Energy from the waves and tides has the potential to meet as much as 20 percent of current U.K. electricity demand, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. The government last month proposed boosting the number of ROCs on offer to marine energy developers from two to five. This means they’re eligible to receive about 230 pounds ($387) a megawatt- hour at current ROC prices.
‘Essential Tickboxes’
The most likely strategic investors in Pelamis would be large power engineering companies that have not already chosen a wave technology to back, Angus McCrone, a senior analyst at London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said today by e-mail.
“This group includes Siemens AG (SIE), which is backing Marine Current Turbines Ltd. in tidal power; Areva SA, which has invested in solar and wind technology companies; and General Electric Co. (GE), which is a big player in wind turbines,” he said.
Pelamis is currently testing two machines at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, northern Scotland, for its utility customers ScottishPower Renewables Ltd., part of Iberdrola SA, and EON AG. It’s also established a joint venture with Vattenfall AB to build a 10-megawatt project off the Shetland Islands.
Securing a strategic partner is one of the company’s “essential tickboxes,” its commercial director, Richard Yemm, said. It has the technology, the sites and the customers though it doesn’t yet have the capability and capacity to deliver on those projects, he said.
“Ultimately, the existing Pelamis team will become the core of the product research and development side of a major manufacturing entity.”
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Louise Downing in London at Ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg in London at landberg@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page