RCS - Orbital Marine Power - Financing of world’s most powerful tidal turbine
04/07/2022 08:15
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RNS Number : 1056R Orbital Marine Power Ltd 04 July 2022
4 July 2022
Orbital Marine Power Ltd
("Orbital" or the "company")
Orbital completes operational finance of world's most powerful tidal turbine
· Funding secured from Scottish National Investment Bank and Abundance
Investment
· Follows the successful completion of the construction and commission
phase of the O2
Orbital, the renewable energy company focused on the development and global
deployment of its pioneering floating tidal turbine technology, today reached
a significant operational funding milestone.
New investment secured from the Scottish National Investment Bank and
individuals via the Abundance Investment platform will finance the ongoing
operation of the O2, the company's 2MW+ floating turbine. These debt
facilities will be serviced by the long-term sale of electricity from the
turbine, forecast at around 100 gigawatt hours of clean predictable energy,
delivered to the UK grid or hydrogen electrolysers over its project life.
The first element of the funding is a £4m investment from the Scottish
National Investment Bank. This investment recognises the role tidal
technologies can play in delivering clean, predictable energy and aligns with
the Bank's mission to support Scotland's transition to net zero energy. The
Bank's investment in this emerging technology also demonstrates its role as a
development bank in attracting additional commercial funding to new markets.
The support of the Bank represents an institutional vote of confidence in the
company's trajectory and there is scope for this relationship to develop
further as Orbital continues its credible course to delivering multi-device
projects in locations across the UK and around the world.
The second element is a £4m 12-year debenture offer which has been funded by
over a thousand individual investors from Abundance Investment. It helps to
refinance a construction debenture raised through Abundance in 2019, which was
the platform's largest single raise of this type. The success of this approach
shows high public support for the company, the technology and tidal stream
power, backed up by the delivery of successful returns for construction
debenture holders.
Taken together, this important financial milestone demonstrates how the
technology is moving towards established infrastructure investment profiles by
leveraging significant levels of commercial project debt, further underlining
a clear path towards future scale.
The latest funding also supplements recent private sector support for the
company. In late 2021, Orbital secured equity investment from TechnipFMC, a
leading technology provider to the traditional and new energy industries, with
a proven track record of successfully delivering large-scale, fully integrated
offshore energy projects to customers around the world.
Andrew Scott, CEO of Orbital Marine Power, said: "Completing operational
finance for the first O2 is a significant moment for Orbital. Closing this
funding demonstrates strong institutional and public support for the company,
our proven technology and our pioneering approach to tidal stream power.
"Tidal stream energy has a vital role to play in delivering clean, predictable
energy as a complementary part of the broader clean energy transition.
Following today's announcement, Orbital is well-placed to continue developing
further projects, benefiting our wide-reaching UK supply chain."
Mark Munro, Executive Director, Scottish National Investment Bank, said: "The
Bank's investment in Orbital aligns with our mission to support home-grown
innovation and the just energy transition. The company's unique and scalable
approach to tidal stream energy has an important role to play in the journey
towards net zero, and its focus on a domestic supply chain and strong Orkney
heritage also has significant potential to benefit Scotland more broadly."
Bruce Davis, Joint Managing Director, Abundance Investment, said: "Our
investors are proud to have mobilised their money to support Orbital Marine
Power in their quest to make tidal stream energy a key pillar of the UK energy
sustainability and security. From its origins as a world beating record
crowdfunding investment we look forward to helping to finance a future world
beating industry."
ENDS
About Orbital Marine Power Ltd.
Orbital Marine Power (Orbital) is a visionary, Scotland-based, renewable
energy company focused on the development and global application of its
pioneering floating turbine technology.
The culmination of over 15 years of refinement has resulted in the world's
most powerful and advanced tidal stream turbine, the O2, which has been
exporting low carbon electricity to the UK grid since July 2021. The O2 is a
2MW+ product capable of being deployed in multi-unit arrays to provide
utility-scale, clean energy with almost zero visual impact.
Orbital's innovative, approach de-risks the commercial extraction of low
carbon energy from fast flowing currents by offering low manufacturing and
installation costs as well as the ability to carry out inexpensive, quick
servicing on all major turbine components through a proprietary structural
configuration.
Orbital has an established portfolio of further multi-MW tidal stream
projects, focused initially within UK waters, built on a global pipeline of
multi-GW opportunities.
More information about Orbital can be found here: www.orbitalmarine.com
(http://www.orbitalmarine.com)
The inspiring story of the O2, from concept to power generation, in under two
minutes can be viewed here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WolGiKMpFh8) .
About the O2
· The O2 is the world's most powerful tidal turbine, able to generate
2MW+
· It was launched in 2021, as the first vessel to be launched from a
Dundee yard in 40 years
· Its estimated CAPEX expenditure in the UK supply chain is around 80%,
with around 60 full time equivalent roles created through build,
· The O2 has been operational since July 2021 and exporting electricity
to Orkney grid is expected to offset around 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and
power 1,700 UK homes while creating high value jobs within the local economy
over the course of its operational life.
· Orbital's floating technology captures the strongest tidal and river
currents, guaranteeing higher yield. These exist close to the surface, rather
than at the seabed.
Media contacts at Orbital Marine Power:
Sarah Watt, Marketing & Media Manager: s.watt@orbitalmarine.com
Tom Gillingham, Charlotte Street Partners:
tom.gillingham@charlottestreetpartners.com / 07741 659 021
About Scottish National Investment Bank:
The Scottish National Investment Bank is Scotland's first development
investment bank, wholly owned by the Scottish Ministers on behalf of the
people of Scotland. The Bank is an impact investor, focussed on delivering
both commercial returns and mission impacts with its investments. The Bank is
a PLC and operationally independent from government.
The Bank invests in business and projects connected to Scotland to deliver
long term, patient debt or equity investment where the private market is
failing to provide the support businesses and projects require to grow.
The Bank's missions are:
· Supporting Scotland's transition to net zero
· Building communities and promoting equality
· Harnessing innovation to enable our people to flourish
The Scottish Government has committed to capitalising the Bank with £2bn in
its first 10 years. Over time as the Bank's initial investments are repaid,
the Bank will reinvest those funds in businesses and projects creating a
perpetual investment fund to support the Scottish economy in the long term.
The Bank was established in November 2020.
Details of the Bank's investments can be found
at https://www.thebank.scot/portfolio/ (https://www.thebank.scot/portfolio/)
www.thebank.scot (http://www.thebank.scot)
Media contacts at Scottish National Investment Bank:
Graham McKendry
3x1 Group
gmckendry@3x1.com
0141 221 0707
About Abundance Investment:
Abundance is a leading direct investment platform that is putting people in
control of their money. People invest in individual projects that generate
something good for the environment and society as well as bank-beating
returns.
The investor chooses which project or business to invest in from just £5 and
benefits from a financial return, while the world benefits from the growth of
sustainable businesses.
Since launching in 2012, more than 7,800 people have invested over £135m
directly into the projects they support via the Abundance platform, with over
£41m returned to investors. In the process, Abundance has achieved a number
of firsts. As well as being the world's first FCA-regulated investment based
crowdfunding company, it is also the first investment platform to offer a
dedicated investment based crowdfunding SIPP and launched the UK's first
Innovative Finance ISA for renewable energy investments on November 1st
2016.
Abundance also became a certified B Corp in 2018; these are businesses that
meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance,
public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and
purpose.
Abundance and Abundance Investment are trading names of Abundance Investment
Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (no.
525432).
Visit (http://www.abundanceinvestment.com/) www.abundanceinvestment.com
(http://www.abundanceinvestment.com/)
Follow @AbundanceInv
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