Perth-founded ocean energy company Bombora Wave Power (Bombora) has received an investment of AUD$6.7M to deliver its pilot projects and commercialise its technology from one of the world’s largest shipping companies Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, founded and based in Japan.
According to Bombara’s press statement, it is believed that the collaboration is an “endorsement” of Bombora’s technology and the global opportunity that mWave represents.
The company’s Managing Director Sam Leighton believes that the collaboration will also bring “invaluable expertise”.
Renewable energy supply is one of the big issues we’ve yet to fully tackle as a society. We are confident that our technology can contribute significantly to this market by delivering consistent and predictable renewable power.
MOL brings invaluable expertise in marine operations, local industry supply chain knowledge and can provide support in project development in Japan and across the region.
Sam Leighton
The investment will bring 18 months of collaboration between the two companies and will be used to further the operational capability and commercialisation the mWave energy generation technology.
This will include the completion of Bombora’s 1.5MW mWave validation project due to be installed off the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales in the next few months, supported by AUD$25.5M in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) via the Welsh government.
Bombora mentions that the project will also increase the reach of Bombora’s InSPIRE platform where its mWave technology is integrated onto floating wind platforms. The company is working with global engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contractor TechnipFMC to develop demonstrations, the first of which involves 4MW of mWave technology integrated with 10MW of wind followed by 6MW of mWave technology intergrated with 12MW of wind.
Yasuo Suzuki, General Manager, Corporate Marketing Division at MOL expressed that there are “great opportunities for mWave technology to provide a significant contribution to the renewable power generation mix in Japan and Asia”.
About the Bombora mWave Technology
Bombora has developed a membrane style wave energy converter called ‘mWave™’.
The mWave is unique among wave energy converters as it simultaneously addresses the ‘cost of energy’ and ‘ocean wave survivability’ challenges whilst delivering a utility scale solution. It harnesses wave energy at large scale to produce environmentally-friendly, consistent and cost-competitive renewable energy for commercial power generation and is able to be installed in both nearshore and offshore sites with good wave resources to generate sustainable clean energy.
Bombora is currently progressing project opportunities in Lanzarote, Norway and Japan.
