Monday 14 January 2019

Abundance closes £7m wave of investment for Orbital Marine Power

Abundance closes £7m wave of investment for Orbital Marine Power

Abundance has closed an investment round for Orbital Marine Power, raising £7 million.

The money will be used to fund the construction of what the firm's claim is the UK’s first floating tidal stream turbine to go into commercial production.

Around 2,300 investors provided an average of £3,000 each, with more than half investing via ISAs for a tax-free return.

The investment round drew particularly strong support from Scotland, with financiers their investing the highest average amount at £4,500 each.

The full £7 million target was achieved on the 1st of January through a crowdfunded bond structure.

The funds raised will be used to build the first production model of the Orbital O2 2MW turbine over the next year for deployment at Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in 2020.

The device is made up of a 73 metre-long floating structure, which supports two 1MW turbines on either side - its design aims to simplify installation and maintenance to keep costs low.

Bruce Davis, Co-Founder and Joint Managing Director of Abundance, said: “2019 promises to be the best year yet for the environmental and social investment sector and it feels significant that our largest investment to date reached its £7 million target on New Year’s Day.

"The UK can rightly claim to be a world leader in tidal generation technology and our customers have backed it enthusiastically."

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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