Ocean Power Backed by EIB Loan Moves Closer to ‘Bankability’ - Bloomberg
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-07/ocean-power-backed-by-eib-loan-moves-closer-to-bankability
The two-century old dream of harnessing the power of the sea came closer to commercial reality after the European Investment Bank backed a Finnish company with ambitions to deploy machines that generate electricity in six countries.
AW-Energy Oy, which also has the support of the nation’s biggest utility, Fortum Oyj, said it expects its could sell as many as 300 megawatts of its WaveRollers in the coming years. The EIB on Wednesday invested 10 million euros ($11 million) in the company to spur the commercialization of the technology.
Power generated from ocean waves has captured scientific attention since at least 1799, when the first patents were filed in France. While scores of demonstration projects have tried harnessing the sea’s energy, the technology hasn’t yet caught on at a utility scale because of its expense and technical difficulty. AW-Energy says its machine using a hinged panel fixed to the seabed is ready for widespread use.
“The tech is commercially mature,” Chief Executive Officer John Liljelund said in a phone interview from Brussels, adding that the machine is due to receive a safety certificate from Lloyd’s Register this month, increasing its “bankability.”
If it works at a big scale, wave power would generate huge amounts of electricity without producing greenhouse gases. In 2012, researchers at the German utility EON SE estimated 2.1 terawatts of could be captured along global coastlines.