Mocean Energy raises £730,000 equity funding

Mocean Energy has secured new investment to accelerate the commercial roll-out of its hinged raft wave energy technology.

The Edinburgh-based company has raised £730,000 equity funding from existing funders, led by angel syndicate Equity Gap, together with Old College Capital, Edinburgh University’s venture investment fund, and Scottish Enterprise.

The new funds will enable Mocean to advance the design of their next-generation Blue Star wave machine and drive its adoption in subsea oil and gas. The new funds follow an £862,000 seed raise which completed in 2020, comprising £612,000 equity funding plus a £250,000 grant from Innovate UK.

In a statement, Mocean Energy managing director Cameron McNatt said: “The equity funding is a tremendous boost and will allow us to accelerate our product roll out.

“This year we’ll start fabricating Blue Star 10 – a 10kW machine based around the Blue X design which will begin commercial trails in 2023.

“In parallel we are developing our next-generation Blue Star 20, a 20kW machine based on a new optimised geometry, which will include solar panels and a novel direct drive generator, with trials and rollout targeted for 2024-25. 

“Both products are aimed at opportunities in the oil and gas energy transition, defence, offshore wind, and ocean science markets where they can be used to provide power to remote subsea equipment, robotics, and monitoring systems.”

In 2021 Mocean successfully trialled Blue X, a 20m long, 38 tonne wave machine prototype at sea at the European Wave Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, and is now collaborating with partners to advance a demonstrator project dubbed Renewables for Subsea Power.

This project aims to show how Mocean Energy’s Blue X wave machine can be coupled with underwater energy storage to cost-effectively and reliably provide low carbon power to subsea CCS injection equipment, oil and gas production equipment and autonomous underwater vehicles.

The partners plan to test the system at sea later this year.