Despite a comprehensive marketing process, and after speaking to a number of interested parties, Aquamarine Power announced on 23 November that it is to cease to trade the business. No offers were made for the company as a going concern, leaving no option but for the company to cease operations on 20 November. Thirteen jobs have been lost in Edinburgh and one in Belfast.
The pioneering wave energy developers have been testing their full-scale Oyster wave energy machines at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.
Aquamarine Power called in the administrators on 28 October to manage the business and seek a sale or investment via the administration process. BDO LLP business restructuring partners James Stephen and Graham Newton were appointed Joint Administrators to take over the running of the Edinburgh firm.
As Stephen said: "Whilst the company has seen many successes over the last few months, including securing a €800,000 grant from the EU as well as a £2M contract from Wave Energy Scotland, the economic climate has significantly affected the business. The lack of private sector backing to supplement public funding support placed the company under cash flow strain."
"The team at Aquamarine Power has worked tirelessly over many years to design, build and demonstrate Oyster wave energy machines," Aquamarine Power CEO Paddy O’Kane added. "During this time we have achieved a number of major milestones that have put our technology at the forefront of the industry. Oyster is the only wave technology to have proven it can operate in all ocean conditions and we have superb understanding of how well Oyster captures energy at sea. However, this news underscores the financial as well as technical challenge in bringing an entirely new form of energy generation to commercialisation."
