Timing is everything. You have to be in the right place at the right time.
Driven by a shared passion for clean, affordable and renewable energy using the ocean, we embarked on our journey over twelve years ago and founded Marine Power Systems, with an ambition to become the world leader in the supply of marine energy extraction hardware by having the highest performance and most cost-effective technology available in the market.
We are well on our way to achieving that ambition and we have successfully developed and tested our fully patent protected marine energy generation technology. Now we are ready to prove the technology at grid-connected megawatt-scale ahead of commercialisation.
At the same time the marine energy sector has developed into one that is capable of driving the prosperous transition to renewable energy. One which will deliver both economic and environmental sustainability; from the local communities it supports to global scale and impacting climate change.
Marine Power Systems is poised and ready to exploit the huge opportunity that lies ahead.
Unlocking the power of the oceans
The ocean's waves and offshore winds represent the largest source of renewable energy available to the planet. Whilst the terms marine energy and ocean energy are sometimes used to describe that derived from wave energy and tidal flows the terms are often used interchangeably and can include energy derived from offshore wind. Furthermore, the resource potential for wave energy generation is ten times that of energy derived from tidal flows and the potential for floating offshore wind is much bigger again.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts global energy demand will increase by 30% by 2040. That is equivalent to adding another China and India to today's global energy consumption. The practically exploitable resource represented by wave and floating offshore wind; the resources our technology is able to extract, could supply both existing global energy demand and more than double that kind of increase. Global decarbonisation and ever-increasing energy requirements are creating huge and accelerating demand. It is currently estimated that marine energy could supply 20% of global electricity by 2050.
The global market for ocean energy alone is estimated to grow to over 53 billion by 2050. In the shorter term that represents a net cumulative benefit to the UK economy of £1.4 billion by 2030 and governments around the world continue to add substance to their commitment to meeting climate change targets and reaching net-zero. Joe Biden now has a $2 trillion plan that puts the United States on a path to zero carbon pollution from the electricity sector by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson commented; "Our seas hold immense potential to power our homes and communities with low-cost green energy and we are already leading the way in harnessing its strengths." And in October last year the UK government set a new target of 1 GW floating wind capacity by 2030. Closer to home the industry body, Marine Energy Wales, have valued the total investment in marine energy in Wales to 2020 at over £124 million.
Whilst the value of stocks in traditional oil and gas companies continue to decline, renewable stocks have continued to grow. Smaller and earlier stage technologies are benefiting from this trend as investors realise the solution to our climate crisis is a multifaceted one based on complimentary technologies.
Never has the marine energy sector looked so strong.
Our incredible journey
We are on a mission to create a better future. One based on clean, affordable, renewable energy using the ocean. One where business and technology supports both economic and environmental sustainability.
We are immensely proud of what we have achieved to date and we owe that credit to our ever-expanding team of engineers, scientists, project managers and suppliers who have applied technical rigour to every stage of the development process and overcome every single challenge that has been thrown at them.
Most recently we completed a multi-million-pound project to design, manufacture and sea test a medium scale prototype at Falmouth, United Kingdom. This test proved the many advantages of our technology and the ability to generate grid compatible electricity. The technical validation and the experience gained from this testing means we are now working at full scale ahead of commercialisation.
In parallel with our prototype testing, we have developed a highly sophisticated computational simulation capability which has enabled us to further optimise the performance capabilities of our unique technology.
Of course, when it comes to the marine environment you need to be flexible. That is why we developed a modular technology solution to support floating wind as well as the integration of wave and floating offshore wind on the same platform. This allows us to offer optimised energy generation across ocean resources and at specific sites. To that end we are already engaged with energy developers and using our computational modelling to maximise energy extraction potential at specific sites and thus deliver the lowest cost of energy and ownership.
We have rapidly progressed into one of the leading marine energy technology developers in the market; proving and de-risking the technology along the way.
Our technology
Marine Power Systems have developed a revolutionary and flexible technology solution that can be configured to harness wind power, wave power or combined wind and wave power at grid scale.
Our solution is unique and represents the only modular wave, floating wind and combined solution that can be used in deep water. Between WaveSub, WindSub and DualSub we support optimised energy capture for any particular site through the combination of wave and wind energy generation technology.
All our devices can be assembled and towed from port and they retain common deployment, anchoring and operation & maintenance solutions. This reduces the costs of ownership and maximises the energy generation cost effectiveness. A designed-in survivability strategy combined with a proven mooring system that provides excellent stability in adverse weather conditions.
When it comes to discussing energy generation the metric used to compare different approaches is Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) which represents the minimum price that a unit of energy needs to be sold for to offset the cost of production over the lifetime of the project and provide an acceptable return on investment. We have independently validated our forecast LCOE for each of our energy generation devices and this demonstrates that our technology is already cost competitive with fixed offshore wind and extremely competitive at scale.
Where our platform design is concerned we have completed design validation, comparing different platform types in the market, via a detailed simulation completed by a leading global offshore engineering consultancy to the renewables, oil and gas and nuclear sectors. The simulation demonstrates that our technology is the most cost efficient of any platform types currently under development.
Both studies contribute to the ongoing de-risking of our technology and make a significant contribution to demonstrating all-important bankability' of the technology.
We are not alone
Electricity generated from marine energy is forecast to become one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy and cost competitive with energy created from fossil fuels. Onshore wind is already the cheapest form of electricity generation in the UK and fixed offshore wind is fast approaching. Floating offshore wind and wave will follow. Current estimates are that 30% of electricity will be produced by floating offshore wind alone by 2050.
In fact, the path set by the wind energy industry is a good one to follow and the wind energy sector has a substantial number of manufacturers and some of them are making billion-dollar revenues per year. Vestas, the Danish wind technology manufacturer, provides a good example.
Of course, Marine Power Systems are not alone in the marketplace. Other manufacturers are making good progress too and we are glad that they are; it proves the potential of harnessing energy from the power of the oceans. Furthermore, that resource is huge and we are absolutely confident in our technology and our ability to become one of a few proven technology providers that dominate the market.
Our solid platform
We have built an incredibly strong platform on which to realise the opportunity that lies ahead.
Our incredibly talented team are not only experienced in the design, manufacture and build of our hardware but also the deployment and maintenance of our technology at sea as well as the regulatory and consenting requirements associated with delivering real world projects. Our team also includes some of the best suppliers, sub-contractors and independent experts in the business; increasing the knowledge and experience available to support us on our journey. We have developed our Board to include the depth and breadth of expertise required to support the business in the years ahead and take our technology to full commercialisation.
Marine Power Systems have recently been awarded £12.8m of support from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. We completed a round of crowdfunding and private investment in the summer of 2020, significantly exceeding our original target, to support and match that non-dilutive government grant funding. That investment success is based on significant third-party due diligence and is testament to the belief that Marine Power Systems' technology will be a market leader in the manufacturing and supply of marine energy extraction hardware.
