Wave-power Pelamis may go public next year

By Leika Kihara

ABERDEEN (Reuters) - Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power may seek to go public next year as it sees growing opportunities outside Europe, its head said on Thursday.

Fragile financial markets have kept Pelamis, which makes a system that generates electricity from ocean waves, from an initial public offering but it will do so "when the market's right," said Pelamis Chief Executive Officer Phil Metcalf.

"Next year would appear to be about the right time. We'll assess it as we go," he told Reuters.

Metcalf said he saw business opportunities in Australia, New Zealand and the west coast of Japan, where high waves create favourable conditions to generate electricity.

The company will also start feasibility studies soon on supplying its equipment to South Africa, and has started business negotiations with a number of companies in Chile, Metcalf said.

Not all ocean conditions prove cost-effective for power generation, he said.

"As the technology develops and becomes more affordable, which it will over time, we can continue to expand those regions to pretty much anywhere where there is an ocean," he said.

Ocean wave power has attracted growing interest from investors and power utilities looking for the next long-term play in renewable energy after the rise in wind power.

But sector analysts say initial public offerings for wave and tidal power are harder to price than wind power, because wave firms cannot give exact figures on the benefits of scale and few of their technologies are up and working yet.