Aquamarine Power to ‘significantly downsize’

Wave energy company Aquamarine Power has announced plans to downsize its business.

The news comes just days after wave energy company Pelamis entered administration and redundancies were announced.

Commenting on the news, Aquamarine Power chief executive Officer John Malcolm said: “Following a strategic review the Board of Aquamarine Power has decided to significantly downsize the business. This will involve retaining a core operational and management team to run the business and continue maintaining our Oyster 800 wave machine at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

“We have entered into a consultation process with all of our employees on how we will take forward the restructuring and redundancy programme.

“This is obviously taking place at a difficult time of year and we will be working very closely with every employee to achieve the best outcome for all.

“None of this is a reflection on the extraordinary dedication and hard work of every single member of the Aquamarine Power team; rather it is a consequence of the considerable financial, regulatory and technical challenges faced by the ocean energy sector as a whole.

“In a relatively short number of years our business has significantly advanced the goal of generating electricity from waves and this has relied wholly upon the bright ideas, innovation and talent of the people who work here.

“We remain confident that Oyster technology offers the best route to a commercial near shore wave energy machine.”