Resolute Marine Energy continues development of a renewable energy solution in a unique area – wave energy. In certain locations, waves could represent a seemingly endless source of kinetic energy and Resolute has has identified an approach to harness the energy and convert it to electricity. They have progressed from a concept to a prototype and are now on a production version that will deployed off the coast of Africa. Even more exciting, they can then utilize the generated electricity to covert sea water to potable water for the neighboring population with little to no environmental impact. It has been a long and complicated process and Resolute continues to progress toward revenue. Their next step will be to continue to do their engineering and product development work in Amesbury, MA. CI Works has again provided the right custom real estate solution for a company’s needs at that point in time and has provided connectivity in key government areas.
Resolute Marine Energy – is a new and developing wave energy technology development company in need of a prototyping and testing lab of approximately 1,000 square feet. They were located in Boston and found that their real estate expansion needs and corresponding costs were unaffordable by them in / near Boston. They chose the Chestnut Innovation Center for the flexible and cost effective real estate terms and business expertise and connectivity offered to related businesses that could be production partners. The product was in design and test phase in conjunction with a US Dept. of Energy SBIR phase 1 grant and needed the space to make and test their phase one prototype. They were successful with their proof, have developed and tested their production size version – approximately four times the size of the prototype. RME has also won multiple technology and engineering awards and received significant funding in the form of U.S. Dept. of Energy competitive grants. Bill Staby, CEO, described his company’s approach as: “We chose the Chestnut Innovation Center because it has given us great value which to us means a combination of robust infrastructure an industrial enterprise like ours needs, flexibility to accommodate our growth requirements, very competitive lease rates and the quality of life in Amesbury.”
Resolute Marine’s wave device is deployed near shore in the wave column of the ocean in areas identified as having a sufficient ‘wave resource’. The device is not constructed using any toxic materials, fossil fuels, nor would create an extensive environmental footprint. It would be deployed in production as series of units below the surface of the water and anchored to the sea floor and not create any navigational problems. It is a series of moving parts that do not represent a wall or create problems for sea creatures or fish, nor present any water flow barriers. It is still near impossible to obtain permitting off the coast of the United States of America, after attempts by Resolute in many states including Alaska.
Resolute Marine has further evolved their product profile to not only include the capture of kinetic energy from waves and conversion to electricity via an onshore inverter, but also through a partnership with Parker Hannifan, where the use of on-site generated electricity through a reverse osmosis device is used to create potable water from seawater. This utilization has generated great interest from African governments to supply native populations along coastlines with electricity and drinking water – which is a huge problem in these areas. Resolute has secured commitments from the African Development Bank to provide project financing in a number of coastal areas with the opportunity for extensive expansion.
Recently, RME has received commitments of venture capital and continues to pursue other sources of capital – both equity and debt financing options – including options from Massachusetts state agencies. The Chestnut Innovation Center is also engaged on this front with RME in order to jointly develop a ‘worldwide development center’ at the Chestnut facility that would include equipment and services available to both RME, other tenants, and nearby businesses. The financing plan for this facility would be through a private / public sourcing match. The Center would then manage the access and utilization of equipment and services to maximize utilization, diversify single company consolidation risk through multiple users, and also tie in workforce training resources to train equipment users and create jobs in this shared facility.
