ORPC’s RivGen power system

Ocean Renewable Power Co., a Portland-based company focused on generating renewable energy from the world’s oceans and rivers, has raised $7.5 million to fund further marketing and sales efforts in the United States, Canada and Chile.

The equity financing will position the company “for growth and profitability,” according to a news release from the company, which launched its first commercial product over the summer in an Alaskan river. The company filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in July that it was seeking to raise $10 million in equity financing.

“With our first commercial product launched, we are thrilled to secure the growth capital needed to expand our business development and sales efforts in a strategic and aggressive manner,” Chris Sauer, ORPC’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “We are also very pleased to welcome substantial, first-time investors to our ownership group.”

Before this raise, ORPC had raised approximately $90 million since it was founded in 2004. Of that amount, approximately $41 million has been in the form of government and foundation grants, according to information the company shared as part of an equity crowdfunding campaign that helped it raise more than $600,000 earlier this year. It posted a net loss of $2.5 million in 2018 on revenue of $2.7 million, according to its audited financials.

The company is already famous for becoming the first in the world to generate electricity from the ocean’s tides (by installing its proprietary underwater turbine in Maine’s Cobscook Bay in 2012) and a river’s current (Alaska in 2014) and deliver it effectively to a power grid. While those were both pilot projects, the company launched its first commercial product, the RivGen Power System, in July in the remote village of Igiugig, Alaska, where the system was installed and is now operating in the nearby Kvichak River. The company plans to install a second RivGen device, along with smart microgrid controls and electronics, and an energy storage system, next year, creating a renewable energy solution that ORPC estimates will reduce the community’s diesel fuel use by 90 percent.

The company reports that it is receiving strong market interest from other remote communities and facilities in the United States, Canada and Chile that have no access to regional power grids or fuel pipelines, and are seeking lower cost, sustainable energy solutions. Its market research suggests that 700 million people worldwide live in remote communities that rely solely on high-cost diesel fuel to power their homes. This new capital will allow ORPC to take advantage of its significant market opportunities.