Following an in depth review of all the recorded tank testing data it was decided to carry out a further tank test at Strathclyde University, the aim of this test was to ascertain the optimum size of the device when manufactured at full scale.

The results of these tests are very encouraging, so much so that the team head back to Strathclyde in early January for what should be a final proving round. Once the data from these tests is analysed and the resulting information fed into the financial model, progress will then be made on presenting Anaconda to the investment community.

Having won support from Carbon Trust back in 2009, the team has been locked in talks with potential investors in an attempt to raise the necessary funds to take the project to the next stage. To aid this process, Brewin Dolphin was appointed financial advisor in January with the aim of raising a pre-float of £6m to build the biggest rubber tube ever made. This comes after an independent review by international consulting engineers Black & Veatch who stated that Anaconda will indeed be one of the most cost-effective ways of converting wave energy into usable energy. Des Crampton, chief executive at Checkmate Seaenergy hopes that the pre-float budget will allow the team to create a full-size device.

“We are working with Brewin Dolphin to help achieve full commercialisation of the Anaconda Wave Energy Converter”, explains Crampton. “We believe Anaconda will offer a cost effective means to capture the enormous amount of energy available globally in offshore waters and can play an important part in achieving the UK’s climate change target of at least 15 per cent of energy generation to come from renewable sources by 2020.” Anaconda’s unique ability to harness wave energy has global benefits with potential sites identified in the UK, Europe, Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change in Whitehall has also shown a lot of interest and enthusiasm in the project . The Minister of State underscored the Coalition Government’s position to support, in a constructive and proactive fashion, the fledgling marine renewables industry and he noted that, assisted by The Carbon Trust, very promising results had been achieved demonstrating that Anaconda has serious potential to drive down the cost of energy in the sector.

Read the full article at the New Scientist site here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128276.100-new-power-wave-heads-out-to-sea.html?full=true

An explosion of designs for harvesting wave energy could make the process competitive at last – and they’re heading out to the ocean for testing

WRINGING electricity from the sea is no small task. But as firms start to test their wave-energy harvesters in the open ocean that could be about to change.

Heaving water holds 40 times more energy than air moving at the same speed, and sea states change more slowly than breezes, making it easier for utilities to predict the availability of energy. Yet the tools needed to make use of the sea’s energy are gargantuan.

“If you can get that sort of level of performance improvement then the economics suddenly start to look a lot more favourable,” says Stephen Wyatt, head of technology acceleration at The Carbon Trust, a UK-government-funded organisation charged with catalysing a low-carbon economy.

A study published by The Carbon Trust in July estimated the cost of energy harvested from waves at 43 pence per kilowatt-hour, or almost three times the cost of offshore wind. To become cost competitive with other sources of renewable energy, companies will have to find ways to squeeze more power out of their devices, says Wyatt.

One of the most promising, according to a three-year study by The Carbon Trust, is Anaconda by Checkmate Seaenergy, based in Sheerness, UK. This is a snake-like rubber tube filled with water that floats just below the surface. As waves hit the front of the device they squeeze the tube, creating a bulge of water that travels along it. When the bulge reaches the end, the pressurised water drives a turbine.

An 8-metre long prototype has been tested, but the firm says it will be several years before its full-scale 1-megawatt device, which would be 150 metres long, is ready.

With such devices arriving with increasing frequency, it’s too early to tell which technology will win out in the end. “That is part of the excitement,” Kermode says. “It may be something completely new or variations on something we have already seen.”

In his article in The Times, entitled Who’s Afraid of Big Energy Projects?
We Are, Dyson makes reference to the increasing number of internationally-sourced energy solutions appearing on our shores, and suggests that we need to step up our game in order to compete in this increasingly important environment.

French firm EDF will be building the next generation nuclear power plants on British soil while Scira Offshore Energy – a Norwegian-led operation – was responsible for the £1 billion windfarm, Sheringham Shoal, just off the coast of Norfolk.

According to The Carbon Trust, the UK is poised to take a significant chunk of the marine-energy pie, creating more than 68,000 jobs by 2050. And it’s projects like Anaconda that will help us get there.

Indeed, in his article, Dyson states that “Anaconda – giant rubber sea snakes that make energy from wave motion – [is] the kind of technology that we could export to the world.”

Source – The Times 29th July 2011 (Subscribers only)

Further details will be made available in respect of the timetable for fundraising during June by the company’s financial advisor Brewin Dolphin.

Des Crampton, South African boss of green energy hopeful Checkmate Group, is hoping that broker Brewin Dolphin will help his company raise a pre-float £6 million to build the biggest rubber tube ever made. Checkmate has the rights to the ‘Anaconda’ system, which can transfer energy of waves through an underwater tube into a shoreline turbine for conversion into usable electricity, and Crampton wants to make a full-scale prototype to demonstrate its potential.

An engineer with experience at South Africa’s Anglo American conglomerate and Highveld Steel and a former chief engineer at Sheerness Steel and director of Mersey Docks in Britain, Crampton is working with Checkmate chairman Paul Auston, an ex-mariner with wide knowledge of maritime and cargo lifting.

His aim is to commercialise the proprietary Anaconda technology, invented by Rod Rainey, visiting professor at University College London and Southampton University and an expert on floating offshore structures, and experimental physicist Professor Francis Farley, who has worked on wave energy for 35 years.

According to Crampton, Checkmate has devised a unique mechanism for putting wave energy into rubber tubes, which has been tested in Scoltand and has won backing from the Carbon Trust. He claims it will prove much cheaper than any rival schemes and will not necessarily depend on the frequency of big waves and rough seas.

If he and Brewin can conjure the initial £6 million from investors, the plan is to raise £18 million in a public float to make Anaconda wave power a profitable player.

Article Source – Growth Company Investor Journal

Anaconda moving to commercialisation

Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd., the company developing the latest green energy technology to exploit wave power, has appointed Brewin Dolphin as Financial Adviser. Brewin Dolphin will lead an initial funding round to enable the company to develop the unique Anaconda Wave Energy Converter (“Anaconda”) as it moves to commercialisation.

Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd. holds the sole global licence to develop Anaconda – a patented and unique invention designed to harness wave energy. Anaconda is made almost entirely of rubber and sits just below the sea’s surface. Anaconda is designed to harness wave energy along the length of its rubber tube, in turn driving a turbine attached at the down-wave end, to produce electricity.

An independent review by international consulting engineers Black & Veatch has been commissioned by the Carbon Trust and confirms Anaconda’s very competitive cost of energy. Anaconda can be deployed globally with potential sites identified in the UK, Europe, Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

Des Crampton, Chief Executive of Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd. said, “We are working with Brewin Dolphin to help achieve full commercialisation of the Anaconda Wave Energy Converter.

“We believe Anaconda will offer a cost-effective means to capture the enormous amount of energy available globally in offshore waters and can play an important part in achieving the UK’s climate change target of at least 15 per cent of energy generation to come from renewable sources by 2020.”

Sandy Fraser, Managing Director at Brewin Dolphin, said, “We are delighted to be appointed as financial adviser to Checkmate Seaenergy and look forward to assisting the company to secure the necessary funding for commercialisation of the Anaconda device.”

For more information, please contact:
Blythe Weigh Communications

Brewin Dolphin Limited

Notes to Editors

1. Checkmate Seaenergy
   Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd. is developing the Anaconda wave energy converter to harness environmentally friendly power.
2. Anaconda
   Invented by Professor Francis Farley and Professor Rod Rainey of WS Atkins, the Anaconda is a unique system for harnessing wave energy. Bulge waves travel the length of the rubber tube before driving a turbine at the end of the tube. The Anaconda has recently completed quarter scale development and testing.

   Anaconda won funding for further development in the Carbon Trust’s Marine Energy Challenge in 2007 and has also recently been awarded an Applied Research and Development grant by Carbon Trust.

   Anaconda is unique, being made almost entirely from rubber, and is protected by patents in Europe, US, Canada and South Africa.

Risk Warning

This communication is issued in the UK by Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd. (“the Company”). This communication is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any shares in Company. No such offer or solicitation will be made except pursuant to a prospectus or information memorandum or other offering document if and when issued by the Company.

The Minister expressed his admiration of the work being carried out in marine renewables. He was supportive, helpful and enthusiastic and offered important guidance that will be of assistance as the project moves forward on the road to commercialisation. The Minister underscored the Coalition Government’s position to support, in a constructive and proactive fashion, the fledgling marine renewables industry and he noted, that assisted by The Carbon Trust, very promising results had been achieved demonstrating that Anaconda has serious potential to drive down the cost of energy in the sector.

Risk Warning

This communication is issued in the UK by Checkmate Seaenergy Ltd. (“the Company”). This communication is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any shares in Company. No such offer or solicitation will be made except pursuant to a prospectus or information memorandum or other offering document if and when issued by the Company.