Edinburgh's Mocean Energy waves hello to 'milestone' seven-figure EU funding for major Orkney project

Edinburgh-based Mocean Energy has secured more than £3 million in European funding to bring about a large-scale wave machine in Orkney as it eyes the longer-term use of its technology around the world.
Cameron McNatt, co-founder and MD of Mocean, who brands the firm's latest funding a 'major milestone'. Picture: Peter Dibdin.Cameron McNatt, co-founder and MD of Mocean, who brands the firm's latest funding a 'major milestone'. Picture: Peter Dibdin.
Cameron McNatt, co-founder and MD of Mocean, who brands the firm's latest funding a 'major milestone'. Picture: Peter Dibdin.
By Emma Newlands
Published 6th Sep 2023, 04:55 BST
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The wave energy firm said the 250-kilowatt (kW) device known as Blue Horizon 250 will be made in Scotland and deployed in a grid-connected berth at the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) in Orkney as early as 2025. It is hoped that the project could pave the way for a small wave farm delivering one to two megawatts of low-carbon electricity by 2030.

Mocean has been awarded the equivalent of £3.2 million in the third phase of EuropeWave, a pre-commercial procurement programme funded through the EU and managed in collaboration with Wave Energy Scotland (WES), the Basque Energy Agency, and Ocean Energy Europe.

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Cameron McNatt, co-founder and MD of Mocean, branded the funding a “major milestone” for the firm, and follows fundraising last year and in 2020. “This programme will allow us to build a significantly larger machine based on our proven hinged raft design, and incorporate our novel direct drive generator,” he added.

“I am grateful to EuropeWave for this support, which will help leverage the additional private investment this project will require. Looking further ahead, our goal is to deliver a small array in UK waters this decade, and I am confident that with appropriate innovation funding in place, we can realise our ambition to build commercial wave energy arrays and generate home-grown green energy from our seas, both in the UK and around the world.”

Mocean also said it is already a key participant in the £2m Renewables for Subsea Power (RSP) programme that has connected its ten-kW Blue X wave energy prototype with a Halo underwater battery system developed by Aberdeen intelligent energy management specialist Verlume.

The two technologies are currently in the seas off Orkney, delivering low-carbon power and communication to infrastructure including Baker Hughes’ subsea controls equipment, and a resident underwater autonomous vehicle provided by Transmark Subsea.