Aquamarine Power (“Aquamarine” or the “Company”) today announces that following a strategic review of the business, it has decided to focus its efforts on the development and commercialisation of Aquamarine’s market leading Oyster® Wave Energy Converter. Further development of Neptune, Aquamarine’s tidal stream device will cease. The design and intellectual property created as part of the Neptune™ project will continue to be part of the Company’s product pipeline but will not undergo further development. Aquamarine will continue to develop tidal sites on a technology “neutral” basis with utility partners.
This approach will enable the Company to accelerate its timetable for commercialisation of Oyster®. Aquamarine already has the key building blocks in place to do this and has contracts in place with Fugro Seacore to commence its installation at the European Marine Energy Centre in the summer and with Airtricity, the renewable energy division of Scottish and Southern Energy to develop sites capable of hosting 1,000MW of marine energy by 2020.
Oyster® has the potential to be the best marine energy device on the market, particularly because of its simplicity, reduced maintenance requirements and its ability to generate power in virtually all sea conditions. Oyster® consists of an oscillating flap, with very few moving parts underwater. It is unique in that it starts generating electricity in almost calm sea conditions and can continue generating even in the worst of storms, making large scale commercial success more achievable for Aquamarine than for its competitors.
Martin McAdam, Chief Executive of Aquamarine commented: “Aquamarine’s mission is “Making Renewable Energy Mainstream” and we believe that Oyster® with its ingenious yet simple design has the ability to achieve this. We have developed a clear path for the business, engineering, commercial and site development activities which will ensure the success of Oyster® and enable us to deliver a profitable system to our customers. The decision to stop any further work on Neptune is the right decision for us. We will deploy our engineering team on making Oyster® commercial in the shortest possible timeframe.”
Martin McAdam added: “We are a multiple technology company. At this stage in our development it makes sense to focus on what will deliver the best commercial device and the best shareholder value.”