Langlee Wave Power announces the establishment of its Spanish subsidiary Langlee Wave Power S.L.U. It was established as a ZEC company in Las Palmas in 2012, with the purpose to move all the R&D activities of the Norwegian company to the island.
Currently, it is employing one Canarian engineer and there is a plan to increase to two engineers by 2013 and increase the staff as soon as the company is ready for the market.
During the first years of activities, the Norwegian company has been developing the conceptual design and the first wave tank modeling. After these successful trials, the company decided to move to the Archipelago the following scale testing and the final full-scale prototype construction and testing in the PLOCAN facilities.
Canary Islands has been chosen for multiple reasons:
– Optimal wave resource and morphological conditions
– Strong needs of energy diversification due to the high cost of fossil fuels
– Limited land use for other kind of renewable energy technologies
– Skilled technicians and engineers and great scientific infrastructures
– Good relationship and support from public authorities
Langlee is closing cooperation agreements with different public and private companies from the Canaries, among them Repnaval, ITC, PLOCAN, PROEXCA, with the objective of testing and building the pilot model in the island following a strong collaboration for future EU projects.
The proceeds from the Canarian R&D project shall enable the company to demonstrate and industrialize the wave energy technology, starting with a prototype to be installed in September 2013, following by a pilot sale in 2014.
The industrial production will be 100% established in the archipelago creating new qualified jobs and increasing the R&D sector in the Archipelago. Moreover it will diversify the industrial sector by the introduction of a new and unexplored field and will promote Canary Islands as pioneer in the International Marine Renewable Energy market.
[mappress]
Press release, December 4, 2012; Image: Langlee Wave Power