At the global International Conference on Ocean Energy (ICOE) 2016, held in late February in Edinburgh, Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto, shared the story on how the company managed to fund the development of Deep Green technology.
“We are in a very promising position in terms of opportunities to industrialise projects in our niche,” he said.
Edlund took part in a panel discussion labelled “Hunting Dragons: What does it take for an investor to back Ocean Energy?” during which he emphasised the importance of focusing on the business and not just the technology at an early stage. Minesto has managed to attract investors to finance the development of the patented tidal turbine Deep Green thanks to a unique technology and a strong focus on customer value, he explained.
“We built the company Minesto at an early stage and we focused on the conditions from an industry perspective,” Edlund said. “For instance, we spent great resources on cost estimates to calculate the cost of energy, the price of the electricity that our plants will be producing.”
Minesto has so far received approx. EUR 18 million from the European Regional Development Funds through the Welsh Government, KIC InnoEnergy and the European Union. In the panel discussion, Martin Edlund also emphasised the importance of establishing partnerships with the public sector, pointing this out as a key success factor in Minesto’s case. “Since the beginning we have been working systematically to bring a customer perspective towards the public sector. It has been an important part in successfully funding our business plan.”
Edlund added: “There will be technological challenges along the way, such is always the case in this type of industries. But the authorities and politicians have the will and the ambition, which makes me confident that our niche within marine energy is in a very promising position in terms of opportunities to industrialise projects. As I see it, the prospects for success have never been better.”