Atmocean raising funds ahead of ocean deployment

December 16, 2016

Atmocean is raising funds through an equity offer to finance the final wave tank testing of its wave energy system ahead of deployment off Ilo, Peru.

The US-based wave energy developer is targeting $25,000 that would enable the company to conduct the fourth round of testing at the Texas A&M University with the aim of optimizing its wave energy system before the real sea deployment set for early 2017.

The number of shares on offer is 5,000 with the equity based crowdfunding campaign set to close on December 20, 2016.

Christopher White, Atmocean’s Chief Operations Officer, said: “The upcoming wave tank tests are designed to proactively optimize our system. Since wave tank testing costs a fraction of the price for ocean testing, it is Atmocean’s intent to use these tests to get us back to the sea with the most optimum design possible that will allow us to demonstrate a commercially ready technology.”

Atmocean has already conducted two trials of its full-size component systems in Ilo last year, and according to the company, it can input the extreme current and wave conditions the system faced in open seas into the wave tank and thereby simulate the targeted real world market area.

The company will use the upcoming ocean test to demonstrate a single operational string of pumps, and is currently working towards securing an ocean permit extension and quoting out local suppliers for materials and labor.

Atmocean’s system consists of pumps and buoys, and is capable of producing both electricity and fresh water out of sea water through desalination process. The system operates by capturing the rising and falling motion of ocean waves to drive a piston in a cylinder which pressurizes the seawater.

By connecting several seawater pumps together as an array, this pressurized seawater can be sent to the onshore converters. The resulting fresh water can be used to to drip irrigate and grow food in new cropland along the arid coastal regions such as those along the west coast of South America.