Aquamarine Power was a British wave energy company, founded in 2005 to commercialise the Oyster wave energy converter, a device to capture energy from near-shore waves. They tested two versions of the Oyster device at the

European Marine Energy Centre The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd. is a UKAS accredited test and research centre focused on wave and tidal power development, based in the Orkney Islands off the mainland of Scotland. The centre provides developers with the opportun ...

in Orkney. They also worked on the development of the Neptune tidal turbine between 2007 and 2009. The company's head offices were in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. Aquamarine Power ceased trading in November 2015.

History

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

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, 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 UK Research Councils, Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical scienc ...

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

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

(EMEC) Billia Croo wave test site off the west coast of Mainland

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

. The second generation Oyster 2 – also called Oyster 800 (based on 800 kW rated power) – was tested at EMEC between 2012 and 2015. The plan was to install three devices (2.4 MW total installed capacity) at Billia Croo, but only one was installed. The project was provisionally dubbed the Orkney Wave Power Station.

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.

Lewis Wave Energy Farm

In March 2012, Aquamarine announced plans to install 40–50 Oyster devices on the seabed off the

Western Isles The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...

in Scotland. The project was intended to be able to supply electricity to more than 38,000 homes. The site was to be off the coast of Lag na Greine, near Fivepenny Borve (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

: Còig Peighinnean Bhuirgh), on the exposed north-west coast of the

Isle of Lewis The Isle of Lewis () or simply Lewis () is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as if they were separate islands. The t ...

. At the All Energy conference in May 2013, government minister Fergus Ewing announced the 40 MW scheme had been granted full consents, making it the largest permitted wave project. Construction was anticipated to start "in the next few years", although this was subject to upgrades to the electricity grid: a new high-voltage inter-connector cable was required to transmit green electricity from Lewis to the mainland of Scotland. In 2013, SSE announced they would not be able to build the inter-connector before 2017, potentially putting renewable energy projects at risk.

Neptune tidal stream turbine

Between 2007 and 2009, Aquamarine also worked on the development of a tidal stream turbine, called "Neptune". This was to have two three-bladed horizontal turbines mounted either side of a monopile foundation, similar to the MCT

SeaGen SeaGen was the world's first large scale commercial tidal stream generator. It was four times more powerful than any other tidal stream generator in the world at the time of installation. It was decommissioned by SIMEC Atlantis Energy Li ...

turbine. It was initially expected to be tested at EMEC in 2011. In January 2009, Aquamarine signed a £2m order with ABB for the electrical systems for two turbines, with a combined rated capacity of 2.4 MW. However, by April 2009, Aquamarine announced that they were ceasing development of the tidal turbine, to focus on their Oyster wave energy device.

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 Professor Stephen Hugh Salter, (7 December 1938 – 23 February 2024) was a South African-born Scottish academic who was Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter's duck wav ...

, 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 Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Exch ...

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, among them Sigma Capital Group and

Scottish Enterprise Scottish Enterprise () is a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, Business, enterprise, innovation, international and investment agency, investment in business. The body covers the eastern ...

Awards

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

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

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.

References

{{Sustainable development in Scotland Renewable energy technology companies Renewable energy companies of Scotland Defunct electric power companies of the United Kingdom Wave farms in Scotland Companies based in Edinburgh Energy companies established in 2005 Renewable resource companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in Scotland 2015 disestablishments in Scotland British companies established in 2005 British companies disestablished in 2015 Renewable resource companies disestablished in 2015