Wavebob Ltd. Selects Annapolis for North American Headquarters
ANNAPOLIS (May 21, 2008) – Governor Martin O’Malley met with representatives from Wavebob Ltd. on Monday and helped announce the opening of their North American headquarters in Annapolis. The Governor met with company executives privately on Tuesday afternoon before hosting a brief press conference to announce the opening.
Wavebob representatives listed Maryland’s highly skilled workforce and the Governor’s energy and environmental leadership among their many reasons for locating in Maryland.
Wavebob is a wave power company developing technology to harness the energy of the ocean to produce renewable electricity. By delivering low cost power with minimal environmental impact, company officials say the patented Wavebob energy converter device is helping accelerate commercial-scale adoption of wave power.
Wavebob has enjoyed some achievements over the past year leading to strategic relationships with Chevron Technology Ventures in the U.S. and Vattenfall, one of Europe’s largest utility companies and has recently formed a joint venture company to develop a 250MW commercial wave farm off the west coast of Ireland. Ireland is now receiving international recognition as a leader in the commercialization of ocean energy technology.
“Wave power is attracting an increasing amount of attention from both the private and public sector groups looking for lower cost ‘green’ approaches to energy generation and consumption,” said Andrew Parish, CEO of Wavebob. “Our operation and development efforts in the U.S. will allow us to bring this innovative Wavebob technology even closer to current and potential customers in the Americas and beyond.”
Company officials say Wavebob is implementing a robust commercialization strategy that includes an office in Annapolis, Md. not only to serve market interests, but also to underpin product development. The company believes that Maryland provides a unique opportunity to apply unique skills, research capacity, and funding opportunities to ocean energy problems, an area where the U.S. has not yet been a global leader.
The company hopes to have 15 employees in place by 2011 and plans to invest over $10 million locally.