CorPower Ocean raises $34M to commercialize its wave energy tech

CorPower Ocean - Wave Energy Converter (Credit: CorPower Ocean)

CorPower Ocean announced the largest single investment in its wave energy technology after securing EUR €32m ($34 million USD) Series B1 funding.

The funding was led by NordicNinja VC – a Japanese-backed VC in Europe focusing on Deep Tech and Climate Tech, SEB Greentech the cleantech investment arm of the SEB bank, and InnoEnergy – a cleantech investor in Europe. The investor consortium also includes Santander Asset Management, a major financer of renewable energy assets, Iberis Capital, a leading Portuguese Venture Capital and Private Equity investor, and Cisco Investments, which has a strategic focus on using technology to help accelerate the transition to clean energy, plus existing shareholders.

“Today’s announcement follows breakthrough results reported earlier this year from the firm’s ocean demonstration at the Aguçadoura site in northern Portugal, where the CorPower C4 became the first commercial-scale wave device to successfully demonstrate the ability to survive the biggest Atlantic storms combined with a large power generation capacity with respect to the size and cost of equipment,” said CorPower Ocean co-founder & CEO Patrik Möller.

CorPower Ocean currently has operations in Sweden, Norway, Portugal, and Scotland, and is expanding to the US West Coast. Established in 2012, CorPower Ocean has now secured EUR €95m ($103 million USD) in funding from private and public investors and demonstrated four generations of its technology.

Wave farm projects are being developed by customers using CorPower Ocean’s technology along the Atlantic Arc, including sites in Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, and Norway. One project is being developed by Ireland’s state-owned energy supplier, ESB, off the coast of County Clare, following two decades of investigating a wide variety of technologies. The pre-commercial phase of the Saoirse Wave project will involve CorPower Ocean WECs (Wave Energy Converters) as part of a CorPack cluster. The project has secured EUR 39.4m co-funding from the EU Innovation Fund.

In February, CorPower Ocean’s C4 WEC completed the first cycle of the ocean commissioning program at the Agucadoura site in northern Portugal. Now proven at commercial scale, CorPower Ocean’s C4 device has demonstrated the ability to tune and detune according to varying sea states, limiting response to extreme storm waves (up to 18.5 m) while amplifying motion and power capture in regular waves using novel phase control technology.

The progression marks a crucial milestone for wave energy addressing the two major obstacles that have hampered commercial adoption – survivability and efficient power generation in normal ocean conditions, CorPower Ocean said. The inflection point provides a firm signal of wave energy’s readiness for widescale adoption.

Earlier this year, Enlit on the Road visited CorPower Ocean’s test site in Viana do Castelo and spoke to the company’s managing director, Miguel Silva, to learn more about the technology, the lessons they have learned on the development path and why Portugal makes for the perfect test site.

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