Minesto narrows year-end loss

Swedish tidal energy developer Minesto has reported a decrease in loss of 37% for the year 2017 – compared to the financial results filed a year ago.

Minesto has reported a loss of $1.2 million (SEK 10 million) for 2017, which is a decrease from $1.9 million in losses (SEK 16 million) reported for the same period in 2016.

The negative result is largely attributable to business and technology development, including personnel and consulting costs, according to the company.

The revenue for the period increased by 34% – from $3.5 million (SEK 29 million) in 2016, to $4.7 million (SEK 39 million).

Minesto said that this was primarily due to the capitalized work on own account.

As reported earlier, the installation of the 500kW Deep Green device – the DG500 – and the surrounding test setup infrastructure will begin this April off North Wales, according to Martin Edlund, CEO of Minesto.

Edlund said: “Preparations for offshore installation, scheduled to start in April, are in full swing and are being run by our team in Wales with Minesto’s Chief Operating Officer David Collier at the forefront.

“We have intensified our development work in Taiwan, among other things, through the newly established subsidiary Minesto Taiwan Ltd, to which we have recruited a local site developer with experience in wave energy testing and good industry contacts. The installation project to demonstrate Deep Green technology in Taiwan, both at Keelung Island and in the Kuroshio ocean stream, is underway and we plan to launch the testing in 2018.

“We have also started work on identifying and developing an additional site within the European Union (EU) to build on and capitalize on developments in Wales. The aim is to ensure full access to the EU’s ambitious support structures for the expansion of renewable marine energy.”

Bernt Erik Westre, Minesto’s Chief Technology Officer, added: “Our focus for 2018 will be on launching and testing the DG500 power plant at our Holyhead Deep site in North Wales.

“Both installation and testing will take place in stages. This means, among other things, that during the second quarter, we will begin to perform functional and capacity tests of the power plant and its various subsystems before we start to generate electricity as the next step. Data from the testing of DG500 will be analyzed in detail and used to further validate our simulations.

“The main focus for technology and product development during the year will be further development and optimization of the Deep Green Utility Scale (DG500) and Deep Green Island Mode (DG100) focusing on micro-grid installations.”