Finerva Renewables has a sinking feeling today after its 72-foot prototype buoy designed to harness wave power sank in 115 feet of water off the coast of Oregon. CNET reports:
The company has planned later trials where buoys will be hooked up to the grid. Finavera is one of several companies putting wave and tidal power prototypes in the sea around the world. One chief criticism has been that these devices can’t hold up to the raging environment of the sea.
Finerva, based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, deployed the AquaBuoy 2.0 wave energy converter on Sept. 5. An AquaBuoy, a floating buoy structure that converts the kinetic energy of the vertical motion of oncoming waves into clean electricity, was still functioning - producing power and providing the company with valuable data one month later. The company said the data “will provide the basis for the future development and eventual commercialization of the wave energy converter.” The company had planned to leave the AquaBuoy in the water until early November, so it sank near the end of its deployment.
Finerva, which also has an office in Portland, Ore., announced a $23 million private placement in late October, to be led by Dundee Securities Corp. and CIBC World Markets Inc. Whether or not the sinking of the test buoy will be a setback in its effort to raise fundings I can’t speculate.
But there appears to be rising investor interest in wave power. Reuters reports that companies working on tapping wave power to generate electricity “are attracting growing interest from investors and power utilities looking for the next long-term play in renewable energy after the rise in wind power.”
A flood of wave and tidal power initial public offerings (IPOs) are set to hit the London market, analysts and sources close to several renewable energy companies told Reuters.
As many as 10 wave-power companies may be looking at doing an IPO on London exchanges in the next 18 months, Reuters reported. One of those companies is the Australian firm Oceanlinx, whose devices not only convert wave energy to electricity, they also can be configured to use that electricity to power desalination of the very same sea water whose motion is generating the power.
Reuters cautions would-be investors that “IPO deals for wave and tidal companies are harder to price, because wind power technology already has scale whereas wave firms only have estimates, they could offer cheaper deals for investors, though with greater risks.”
Risks like seeing your investment sink to the ocean floor.
