Atlantis-MeyGen tidal power chief chairs £10,000 marine energy Dragons Den competition in Glasgow

The five finalists who could win up to £10,000 worth of investment and business advice in a ‘green’ Dragons’ Den event in Glasgow tomorrow have been announced. They are:

• Fraenkel-Wright’s SuperTide Gen 6MW tidal turbine
• Ocean Energy Advisors’ Innovation at the interface of technology, policy and finance
• Oceanflow Energy’s Starfloat floating wind turbine
• SAITEC Offshore Technologies’ SATH
• Tidetec’s tidal lagoon ‘two-way hydropower’ technology

Thanks to an initiative master-minded by Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive of Atlantis Resources, the winner of the Investment Challenge will benefit from up to £10,000-worth of advice from lawyers, stockbrokers, investment bankers, accountants and marketeers.

Cornelius said: “We’ve five superb finalists who I know will rise to the occasion. We’re certainly in for a highly stimulating, and perhaps nail-biting, 90 minutes that I hope will help others in the audience in overcoming the much talked about ‘valley of death’ between innovation and commercialisation.”

Entries were invited from across the marine renewable energy industry from developers of technology, projects or services destined for use by the tidal stream, tidal barrage, tidal lagoon, wave, OTEC, salinity gradient and floating offshore wind sectors. The short list of finalists was then drawn up and includes entries from Norway, Spain and the UK.

Tim Cornelius will chair the final when the five short-listed candidates have the opportunity to give a 10-minute elevator pitch in front of the expert panel which comprises: 

• Jock Maxwell Macdonald, Director, Peel Hunt
• Nick Stamp, Director, Macquarie Capital
• Cameron Smith, Partner, Ashurst
• Ben Brewerton, Director, FTI Consulting
• Jonnie Cox, Managing Director, Cantor Fitzgerald

Each of the candidates will then receive five minutes of immediate feedback, and the winner will benefit from the specially tailored workshop, sponsored by Atlantis, with one aim – to help them raise funds. 

“We are extremely grateful to Tim Cornelius for proposing this new addition to the All-Energy conference programme,” said Event Director, Jonathan Heastie of organisers Reed Exhibitions.

“He is also chairing another session earlier in the day, in his role as Chairman of MeyGen, which looks at the all-important topic of ‘The tidal power LCOE race – who will win, why and by when?’ involving eight of the industry’s leading stream, lagoon and barrage developers who will debate which projects will be able to compete with Pot 2 technologies.”