Jobs lost as wave energy firm Aquamarine Power folds

Aquamarine Power developed the Oyster wave energy converter

Wave energy company Aquamarine Power has been forced to stop trading after it failed to find a buyer.

The Edinburgh-based company called in administrators at the end of October, saying the economic climate had "significantly affected" its business.

A total of 14 jobs have been lost, 13 in Edinburgh and one in Belfast.

James Stephen, from administrators BDO, said a number of interested parties had been spoken to but no offers were made. The company ceased trading on Friday.

The company had built and run two full-scale wave energy converters, called Oysters, at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

'No option'

The administrators were called in just weeks after the firm announced it had been awarded a £580,000 grant from the European Union to help it accelerate the development of commercial wave energy technology.

Mr Stephen said: "Despite a comprehensive marketing process, and after speaking to a number of interested parties, we regret to announce that no offers were made for Aquamarine Power as a going concern, leaving us with no option but to cease to trade the business.

"The company ceased to trade on Friday, 20 November. Regrettably, this means that 13 jobs have been lost in Edinburgh and one in Belfast.

"Our duty now as joint administrators is to maximize recoveries from the asset base for the benefit of creditors."

In October, Aquamarine Power chief executive Paddy O'Kane, said the news that the administrators had been called in "underscores the financial as well as technical challenge in bringing an entirely new form of energy generation to commercialisation".

Last November, another wave power technology firm, Pelamis, called in administrators after failing to secure development funding.