Portland's Ocean Renewable Power launches subsidiary in Quebec

Courtesy / Ocean Renewable Power Co. Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Co.'s RivGen power turbine is shown prior to be lowered in early August 2014 into the Kvichak River at the remote Alaskan village of Igiugig.

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By James McCarthy

Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Co. has launched a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary to capitalize on the province of Quebec’s strong interest in developing marine renewable energy projects.

Énergies Marines Renouvelables Québécoises Inc., or EMARQ, will be based in Montreal. ORPC President and CEO Chris Sauer said Marcel Boridy, who has held management positions in the marine energy sector over the past seven years, has been named vice president and general manager of the new subsidiary.

“ORPC is committed to investing in Quebec and making marine renewable energy projects a reality for the province,” Sauer said in a release announcing the new affiliate Thursday, which will be working collaboratively with the province’s public and private sectors to install power generation systems in river and tidal environments.

Elsewhere, ORPC projects include connecting a tidal-power generator to a utility grid at Eastport and a river-power generator to a local micro-grid in Alaska.

In this case, Boridy said the EMARQ’s initial focus will be Quebec’s Plan Nord, an ambitious sustainable 20-year development program launched by the province to develop its natural resources in the remote region north of the 49th parallel. “As with all ORPC projects, EMARQ is committed to maximizing the contributions of local partners by creating a Quebec-based industry cluster and generating significant economic benefits including job creation.”

“We’ve known Marcel for several years,” John Ferland, ORPC’s vice president of project development, told Mainebiz in a telephone interview Thursday. “He has a long history in technology and the clean energy industry. He’s a Quebec citizen. He lives in the province and has many contacts in the public and private sectors. We felt bringing him on was strategically important to our own business development efforts.”

Ferland, who earlier this year was named president of ORPC Solutions, a subsidiary offering project development, licensing and strategic services to river and ocean energy projects, noted that Quebec Province’s northern region is very similar to the site of ORPC’s demonstration project testing its RivGen power system in the Kvichak River at the remote Alaskan village of Igiugig. The Alaska pilot, located 275 miles southwest of Anchorage, was deemed a “huge success” in 2014 and this summer ORPC installed a second-generation RivGen unit to deliver power at much lower cost than diesel-generated power to the year-round community of roughly 60 people.

Ferland described the Plan Nord region as “very rural, with communities in remote locations very much like Alaska.” The Quebec Province’s 20-year initiative, he added, envisions sustainable development projects based on partnerships, private-sector investment and support for indigenous communities — attributes, he said, that are very much a part of ORPC’s approach to its hydro-kinetic projects in Alaska, Eastport and Ireland.

“It’s a huge initiative,” he said. “When we look at the North American market, we see our Alaska project as having the same profile. Quebec is an excellent entry point for us, particularly due to its proximity to Maine. … We are at a very, very early and emergent phase of creating a company there.”

Ferland said EMARQ’s first step will be to reach out to other parties, and, as ORPC did in Eastport and Alaska, build a strong supply chain with local Canadian and native partners, both in the private and public sectors. “We have always sought to be that type of company,” he said. “It’s a fundamental core value. It’s why we continue to get inquiries from around the world.”

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