French tidal energy company eyes up to €2M of fresh funding

French company EEL Energy is looking to raise up to €2 million in new funding to help advance its tidal energy technology and projects.

One year after successfully closing the equity round, where it collected funds from existing and new shareholders, EEL Energy has embarked on another fundraising campaign targeting between €1-2 million to support its business and operations.

According to the company, it managed to deliver the objectives set out last year, having managed to prove the effectiveness of its membrane technology during tests in Brest, claiming 50% more efficiency than conventional tidal energy devices.

Also, EEL Energy said it reached the preliminary design stage for a 1MW tidal energy device, and is making good progress with corporate, state, and international institutions to fund the acceleration of its commercial and industrial deployments around mid-2024.

Perhaps the biggest milestone for the company over this one-year period since the last fundraiser was the successful deployment of 30kW device on the Rhône river, which is already supplying clean energy to the French power grid.

The turbine represents the first of four planned that will form a fluvial clean energy farm – the first such undertaking in the world.

EEL Energy noted that the minimum investment ticket for the participation in this funding round has been set at €100,000.

The company’s tidal energy converter has been designed to replicate the undulating movements of marine life, consisting of a membrane that optimizes energy transfer by coupling fluid flow with an undulating structure.

The energy is converted along the whole length of the membrane surface which undulates under moving fluid pressure, and this periodic motion is transformed into electricity by an electromechanical system.