Stockholm, Sweden, October 16, 2024 (PR) - CorPower Ocean is today announcing the largest single investment in its wave energy technology after securing EUR 32m Series B1 funding (1st close).
Announced during EIT InnoEnergy’s Business Booster in Barcelona - one of Europe’s leading sustainable energy events – it marks a significant development for wave energy which is accelerating towards a bankable mainstream energy source.
Led by NordicNinja VC - the largest Japanese backed VC in Europe focusing on Deep Tech and Climate Tech, SEB Greentech the cleantech investment arm of the SEB bank, and InnoEnergy – one of the most active cleantech investors 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, who have a strategic focus on using technology to help accelerate the transition to clean energy, plus existing shareholders.
In CorPower Ocean, 85 people from 22 countries have come together in one of the most ambitious efforts to bring utility scale wave energy to the world. The company 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 in funding from private and public investors and successfully demonstrated four generations of its unique technology, addressing the two main challenges which have held back commercial adoption of wave energy – 1. storm survivability and 2. efficient power generation in normal ocean conditions.
CorPower Ocean co-founder & CEO Patrik Möller said “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.”
Möller added. “We’re hugely grateful for the support and confidence from this premiere group of investors who bring crucial experience and capacity to support our mission to power the planet with clean electricity from ocean waves. This financing combined with the technology breakthrough recently reported delivers a firm message about wave energy’s readiness for widescale adoption and its key role in the global energy transition.”
NordicNinja VC’s Managing Partner Tomosaku Sohara explains, “The CorPower Ocean team combines decades of wave-power experience and world-class company building ability to unlock untouched ocean resources in Europe, the US and Japan. We are excited to support CorPower Ocean as a lead investor, and this funding round is a strong testament to the team's achievement and the momentum from the market.”
“The technical ability CorPower Ocean has demonstrated to survive the biggest Atlantic storms has been truly impressive. Wave power will finally meet the level of industrial expectations,” added NordicNinja VC’s Managing Partner Marek Kiisa.
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.
InnoEnergy CEO Diego Pavia said: “Harvestable and accessible wave energy resources in the world amount to 500GW, with availability and predictability way above wind and solar. As such wave energy is a must to have to supply the 24/7 green electricity, we need to decarbonize the energy and industrial system. CorPower Ocean has consistently demonstrated the energy ratings and maintainability it promised, also in harsh environments. With this financing round, we speed up the commercialization phase.”
Markus Hökfelt, Investment Director SEB GreenTech VC said: "This truly is an amazing team of people encompassing world leading engineering skills, know-how, determination and drive, led by a CEO in Patrik Möller with the top qualities that we look for as investors. By providing the support and funding they need, CorPower Ocean will make wave power a reliable, cost competitive and scalable energy source.”
Wave energy represents one of the largest untapped clean energy sources, amounting to more than all of today’s hydro or nuclear capacity. Significant resource lies along the European Atlantic, US west coast, South America, Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Local jurisdictions are fast adopting wave energy targets, including the UK and Portugal, with the US recently proposing new instruments to ramp up commercialization and industrial development.
Iberis Capital Partner Diogo Chalbert affirmed: "We believe wave energy is emerging as a transformative force in the renewable energy landscape, holding vast potential as a reliable and sustainable power source for the future. We are proud to support CorPower Ocean, a recognized leader in the sector, whose C4 device has demonstrated outstanding durability and reliability, even enduring several major storms in Portugal".
"Cisco has a goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions across our value chain by 2040," says Jon Koplin, Senior Director at Cisco Investments. "We're excited to invest in CorPower Ocean and their wave-energy technology to complement solar and wind, creating 24/7 renewable power needed by data centers and smart buildings worldwide."
With a consistent and complementary power profile, wave energy can play a key role in stabilizing the clean energy mix, helping to fill the gaps of wind and solar, supporting ambitious 24/7 carbon-free energy targets adopted by data centres worldwide. It comes amid growing demand for 24/7 clean electricity from broader industrial electricity consumers and policymakers to decarbonize and mitigate climate change.
