Wave energy company Seaturns has raised €2.45 million. The company will use the funds to finalize research and development, with the full-scale demonstrator to be deployed in summer 2025 at the Sem-Rev site. Funds will also be used to launch industrialization and accelerate international commercialization.
Founded in 2015, the Bordeaux based company converts wave energy into pneumatic power. It uses a floater that has a water pendulum and two air-filled chambers at the top, separated by an axial vertical divider. The rotation of the floater combined with the water pendulum creates pressure cycles of the two air chambers. The air flow generated rotates a turbine directly coupled to a generator to produce electricity.
Though it has yet to be fully commercialized, wave energy has the theoretical potential to supply as much electricity as the world currently consumes. Waves change in size and magnitude depending on a number of factors including wind, sun and tides. But since water is 800 times denser than wind, the amount of power that could be generated by waves is massive.
The company said a ¼-scale prototype was tested for 18 months at Ifremer in Brest. It said manufacturing is optimized to reduce costs and prepare for mass production, while installation is simplified to enable rapid deployment of future wave farms worldwide.
The round was led by the Keenest platform, with support from existing investors Team For The Planet and Sébastien Duez.
“Seaturns’ wave energy technology has shown outstanding results during 18 months of real-world testing, both in terms of electricity production and system resilience,” said Renan Labrunie, Chief Operating Officer of Keenest. “We are thrilled to support them in this new phase of development—this is a project we’ve been following for a long time, and it fits perfectly within our investment focus on climate and decarbonization.”
