CORRECTED - UK Aquamarine raises 10 mln pounds for wave energy

Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:12am EDT

(Corrects in fourth paragraph that funding comes from SSE and not its unit Airtricity)

* Part of funding is from SSE

* Needs 50 mln pounds to commercialise project by 2014

* Working on pipes after Oyster installation in August

LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Britain's Aquamarine Power Ltd said on Monday it had raised 10 million pounds ($16.18 million) to push forward development of its Oyster wave energy converter.

Aquamarine Power, a privately-owned company set up in 2005 with headquarters in Edinburgh, is one of a handful of British companies already testing its marine energy device in the ocean.

"It proves that there is considerable investor appetite for renewable energy companies," Chief Executive Officer Martin McAdam said in a statement.

A company spokeswoman said part of the funding came from Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) (SSE.L), with which Aquamarine plans to develop 1 gigawatts of marine energy sites by 2020.

Aquamarine said it needed around 50 million pounds in total to take Oyster through to commercialisation by 2014. It said in April it had invested about 20 million pounds by then.

To cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from the 1990 level, the government is stepping up support for new renewable technology, including marine power.

Aquamarine installed its Oyster device at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland in August, and is working on sub-sea pipelines, which would deliver high pressure fresh water to an onshore turbine.

It is to begin generating power later this year.

The device consists of an oscillator fitted with pistons and fixed to the seabed. Each wave moves the oscillator, pumping high pressure water via a pipeline to the shore. Conventional hydroelectric generators onshore convert it into electricity. (Reporting by Nao Nakanishi; editing by James Jukwey)

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