Scottish marine energy company Aquamarine Power said today it had received £7million of fresh funding to develop its technology.
The firm said the investment was a “tremendous vote of confidence” in its Oyster device.
It comes as First Minister Alex Salmond announced a £35million fund to encourage the production of offshore wind technology at the first day of a renewable finance conference.
Aquamarine received £3million from each of its major shareholders, SSE Venture Capital – the ventures division of Scottish and Southern Energy – and international power company ABB.
Scottish Enterprise provided £1million through the Scottish Investment Bank.
All three organisations have also said they would work together to raise £18million to take Aquamarine to commercialisation in 2014.
Aquamarine’s Oyster device is a wave-powered pump which pushes high pressure water to drive a conventional onshore hydroelectric turbine.
The firm plans to build a 2.4MW array at the European Marine Energy Centre testing facility in Orkney to put the technology through its paces.
Aquamarine chief executive Martin McAdam said: “This new investment and further financial commitment from our existing shareholders is another tremendous vote of confidence in Aquamarine Power’s Oyster technology, our team, and the global market potential of nearshore wave energy.
“This level of commitment frees us up to concentrate fully on the challenge of deploying Oyster technology to produce cost effective, reliable, clean energy from the sea.”
Meanwhile, Mr Salmond was at the opening day of the Scottish Low Carbon Investment conference in Edinburgh to talk about Scottish Enterprise’s £35million fund for offshore wind projects.
The scheme is open for applications from across Scotland until March 2013 and aims to build on recent success in attracting world-leading turbine manufacturers to locate research and development bases in Scotland.
Mr Salmond said: “As developers and investors look across this global market for certainty and for leadership from government, they can look to Scotland to provide those things.
“We are determined to remain among the most attractive locations for manufacturing, including the prototype testing that follows the research and development phase.”
Nobel Laureate and former US vice-president Al Gore is also at the conference, and will speak this morning before the event concludes later tomorrow.
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