Harnessing Marine Renewable Energy with C-Power
Dive into the innovative world of marine renewable energy with C-Power, a pioneering company revolutionizing the renewable energy sector. Learn how they leverage the power of the ocean to provide cost-effective, reliable, and sustainable energy solutions, driving innovation and decarbonization in the global economy.
COMPANY SIZE
30
DATE FOUNDED
2011
LOCATION
Headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia, product development and delivery based in Corvallis, Oregon.
FUN FACT
C-Power’s humble beginnings as graduate research at Oregon State University evolved into a company that today employs a global team with more than three centuries of successful management, operating, and engineering experience from the renewable energy sector, early-stage prototyping and testing, and Fortune 500 companies.
Their mission:
C-Power, an ocean power company, taps the world’s largest battery — our oceans — to supply cost-effective, dependable, and predictable energy to reduce operational costs and complexity and unleash innovation and decarbonization in the global economy.
What sets C-Power apart? What is C-Power doing differently to carve out its place within the industry?
The oceans are the biggest and best battery on earth. They are powerful enough to supply two-times the world’s annual energy consumption, more energy dense than wind or solar, and ideally located to serve offshore energy needs and the vast populations living near the coast. C-Power taps this battery to deliver affordable, reliable energy where it’s needed on a global scale.
We meet the needs of two large energy consumption markets:
- The $15 billion, 11 terawatt-hours per year offshore market, in which the offshore energy, defense and security, research, shipping, and aquaculture industries are driven to reduce their dependence on liquid fuel, lower their operational and capital costs, while delivering new electric, robotic, and digital solutions into the market.
- The $36 billion, 650 terawatt-hour per year utility-scale market, in which offshore and onshore customers such as electric utilities and offshore energy producers require new, cost-effective energy sources to help decarbonize the global energy mix while creating more reliable and secure carbon-free energy supplies.
C-Power is unique among ocean energy providers in that it targets the offshore, low-power market as its primary initial market, to be followed by the utility-scale market. Within this “lily-pad” strategy, C-Power is first commercializing solutions to serve the operationally expensive, complex, and carbon-intensive offshore market; one in which customers and their suppliers experience significant operational pain but have limited or no alternatives to the status quo. By targeting the offshore market first, C-Power is building revenue, scale, and reach, while lowering cost of energy and building competitiveness. We are putting these technology gains and experience to use to develop utility-scale solutions and will leverage our offshore customer and partner base to enter the utility-scale market. will leverage our offshore customer and partner base to enter the utility-scale market.
What are some of the key challenges and opportunities that C-Power anticipates in the renewable energy landscape, both presently and in the future?
Deep efforts are underway globally to decarbonize. However, on a region-by-region basis, implementation is inconsistent. Any pathway to net zero includes the electrification of the global economy through enormous technology investments, wholesale substitution of renewables for carbon fuels, and meaningful evolution in business and operational models. Underlying this change is the private sector’s constant effort to reduce costs and increase competitiveness, market share, scalability, and profitability, while improving human and environmental safety.
However, the collective goals – reductions in cost and carbon-intensity, while improving competitiveness – can’t be met with the tools at hand today. As super trends like decarbonization, digitization, electrification, and autonomy continue to grow, they will strain the capacity of existing cost-effective, impactful energy resources needed to deliver net zero.
Wind and solar, by themselves, aren’t enough to affect a wholesale transition to net-zero energy globally. The IEA predicts that most of the reductions in CO2 emissions through 2030 will come from technologies already on the market today. But in 2050, it estimates almost half the reductions will come from technologies that are currently at the demonstration or prototype phase.
The global challenge of an inability to meet today’s and tomorrow’s energy needs with the right resource presents a tremendous opportunity for C-Power.
Ocean energy is plentiful, widespread, local, and energetic. It can be deployed at massive scale, and C-Power has engineered the solutions to cover a broad range of applications, putting us in the pole position to seize the largest share of a major economic opportunity. And while decarbonization is a key driver of economic behavior in much of the world, C-Power solutions are also designed with a focus on the business imperative to maximize value. In many instances, C-Power can provide customers with 50-70% cost reductions and enable robotic, digital, electric hardware and services not feasible today.
Could you share some insights into C-Power’s future plans and aspirations? Are there any upcoming projects or developments on the horizon that you’re particularly excited about?
C-Power has begun commercialization of its SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system (AOPS), which is designed to serve the offshore, low-power market, with an initial system sold. The company will ramp up production of this product to build scalable, repeatable revenue streams. In parallel, we will continue to develop our StingRAY wave power system, which is designed to serve higher power needs offshore and the utility-scale market, ultimately bringing it into the product line to satisfy customers’ larger-scale energy needs.
In October 2023, C-Power successfully deployed a SeaRAY AOPS at the U.S. Navy’s Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) in Kaneohe Bay off Marine Corps Base Hawaii in under an hour — an incredible accomplishment for a novel ocean energy system. The system will be redeployed at WETS in summer 2024 after a refit to include upgraded power electronics and other innovations implemented in response to the initial deployment. Part of the motivation for returning to Hawaii is inclusion in RIMPAC 2024, which is the largest naval exercise conducted globally. Over 30 allied navies will be present, representing a unique business development opportunity for C-Power. We are one of a few private companies, and the only ocean energy company, invited to participate.
In 2025, C-Power will launch an 18-month demonstration of a next-generation SeaRAY AOPS at the PacWave South wave energy test site off the Oregon coast. During the deployment, we will demonstrate the breadth and depth of the SeaRAY’s capabilities simultaneously supporting surface and subsurface mobile and static assets in the ocean with power and data communications.
These asset co-demonstrations are part of C-Power’s Partner Engagement and Co-Development (PEC) program. PEC offers companies across the ocean economy definitive opportunities to integrate systems and services with us and competitive, high-value innovations into their product and service roadmaps. C-Power measures success in PEC through hard commitments from customers and partners, as they move from initial engagement to a commercial relationship. Example metrics include committed co-demonstrations, purchase orders, and signed Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), outlining business development plans and objectives with our channel partners. Between the Hawaii and Oregon projects, C-Power has over 18 customers and partners involved, including leading global suppliers and customers like Fugro, Subsea7, OneSubsea, Open Ocean Robotics, BioSonics, Sonardyne, Wavefront, and Shell’s Marine Renewable Program. This represents more commercial attachment than the rest of the industry combined.
What opportunities exist for investors to support C-Power’s mission, and what attributes or qualities are you seeking in potential allies or partners?
C-Power is actively seeking investors for a $10 million round now. Objectives to be pursued with this funding include:
- Commercializing the SeaRAY product line within the commercial, defense, and security markets
- Building our Partner Engagement and Co-development Program to include 100+ customers and partners
- Completing full-scale StingRAY demonstration
- Expanding our product marketing, sales, manufacturing, and delivery team and our global technical and operational leadership
As the world embraces sustainability, C-Power emerges as a leader in marine renewable energy innovation. As they continue to expand their partnerships and seek new investment opportunities, C-Power invites investors to join them in harnessing the power of the oceans to drive the global transition to sustainable energy.
