OpenHydro plans to raise €30m
Tidal energy company OpenHydro is about to embark on a new €30 million fund-raising round in order to increase its manufacturing capacity and bring more turbines onto the commercial market.
James Ives, chief executive of OpenHydro, said the company had successfully installed its first commercial project in Nova Scotia and was now in a position to capitalise on several years of research and development work.
Ives was speaking after the company was awarded a grant of up to €2 million from Sustainable Energy Ireland’s Ocean Energy Prototype Research and Development Programme.
OpenHydro has managed to secure a substantial part of the €10 million overall available from the fund, which is part of the government’s National Strategy for Ocean Energy aimed at introducing ocean energy into the renewables portfolio in Ireland.
Ives said the grant would be used to help finance the design and development of its next generation tidal turbine. This will be a 16-metre turbine, capable of generating up to 2 megawatts of electricity, depending on sea conditions.
OpenHydro’s current product is a ten-metre turbine, which was developed in its technical centre on Carlingford Lough. The turbine was recently installed on the Bay of Fundy in Canada for utility company Nova Scotia Power, as part of a multimillion-euro contract OpenHydro won with the firm, its first commercial contract.
OpenHydro has to date raised a total of €52 million from investors. Its main backers include listed investment company On€51 and Canadian power company Emera, a long with the founders of the company, led by executive chairman Brendan Gilmore.
Ives said previous funding rounds had predominantly been used to finance research and development.
He said the company was still ‘‘well funded’’, but the new cash injection would allow it to grow the business at a faster pace now that it has proven it has a commercially viable product.
The firm’s next project will be with EDF in France, which will be the first customer for the company’s new 16-metre turbine now under development.
OpenHydro is operating in a crowded market and it has many competitors developing tidal energy systems, said Ives.
‘‘However, we are one of the small few to have their technology running in the water, and we are the first to supply a commercial turbine,” he said.
