DIRECTORY ENTRY: Aquamarine Power

Our story

Our story first started in 2001 when Professor Trevor Whittaker's research and development team at Queen's University, Belfast began to research flap-type wave power devices with a view to reducing the cost of energy.  The R&D team's research ultimately led to the development of the Oyster wave energy device.

The innovative design of Oyster attracted the interest of Allan Thomson, the retired founder of WaveGen, the UK's first ever wave power company.  Allan went on to co-fund further R&D into the Oyster wave power device.  In 2005, Allan set up Aquamarine Power to bring Oyster wave power technology to the commercial market.

Securing investment

In 2007, we secured an investment of £6.3 million from major utility SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy plc).  We also secured a further investment of £1.5 million from venture capitalist Sigma Capital Group plc.  This gave us the financial backing and additional industry expertise we needed to progress our Oyster wave energy technology from scale model wave tank testing to full-scale sea trials.

In 2008 we completed the fabrication of our first full-scale prototype of Oyster, ready for offshore trials at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney in summer 2009.  We also secured a further test berth at EMEC for our second Oyster device, ready for installation in 2011.

Rapid company growth

In 2008 we completed our senior management team and our company rapidly expanded as we went from four employees to a team of 15 in only three months.

We continue to grow rapidly.  We now employ over 60 staff who are all working towards our vision of making marine renewable energy mainstream.  SSE remains a major shareholder in Aquamarine Power.  In 2010, we also secured major investment from ABB, one of the world's largest power and automation companies.