Energy futureORECon raises $24 million

ORECon, the U.K.-based wave energy device developer, has completed its first institutional funding round led by a syndicate of international venture capitalists, including Advent Ventures, Venrock, Wellington Partners, and Northzone Ventures. With the $24 million investment, ORECon will build and deploy a full-scale wave energy device, then move on to commercial roll-out of its technology. ORECon’s patented MRC (multi-resonant chambers) technology, the result of six years of planning and development, uses multiple wave chambers of differing draughts integrated into a single buoy to produce a device with a power output of 1.5 MW. The system has a minimum of moving parts, none of which are below the water surface, enabling it to be permanently deployed and maintained on site.

ORECon was established in 2002 by Nicola Harper and Fraser Johnson who had been developing the wave energy technology since 2001. The company was formed as a spin-out from their postgraduate project at Plymouth University which included sea trials of a 12th scale concept prototype. Early industrial seed investment kick-started development of the company and was later followed in 2003, with a DTI SMART Award. Following the SMART funded feasibility work, ORECon raised private investment to match fund a Carbon Trust grant for the industrial development of the MRC wave energy technology.