Founder's Story

Every company has a story. Pliosaur Energy began with a simple question: could wave and tidal energy be harnessed more efficiently to unlock the commercial potential of marine renewable energy?

My engineering career began with a Mining Engineering degree from the Camborne School of Mines, graduating in 1983. After spending two years in the gold mining industry, I moved into the offshore oil and gas sector, where I spent the next twenty-seven years working across engineering, offshore operations and the complete project lifecycle of major offshore developments. Those years provided invaluable experience in subsea systems, project development, production operations and the commercial realities of delivering complex offshore infrastructure safely, reliably and economically.

By the time I reached a senior production management role, I had become convinced that many of the engineering principles successfully applied in the offshore oil and gas industry could also be applied to marine renewable energy. In particular, I believed that expertise in offshore structures, subsea systems and project lifecycle engineering could help overcome many of the technical and economic challenges facing the sector.

In 2012, I was offered the opportunity to continue my career in senior leadership with BG Group or to leave the company and pursue an idea that had been developing for some time.

I chose to leave.

When I founded Pliosaur Energy, much of the marine renewable energy sector was focused on seabed-mounted devices. Rather than starting with a turbine concept, I started with the Bristol Channel, home to the highest tidal range in Europe and one of the continent’s most significant tidal-energy resources. I designed the technology around its powerful tidal currents, energetic wave climate and some of the most demanding operating conditions in Europe.

Drawing upon decades of offshore and subsea experience, I believed a floating system would offer significant advantages in installation, maintenance and long-term commercial scalability. It was also important that the technology should not be limited to shallow coastal sites, but could be deployed economically in deeper water around the world. Rather than following the prevailing direction of the industry, I wanted to apply proven offshore engineering principles to create an entirely different approach. That belief became the foundation of Pliosaur Energy.

From the outset, the company adopted a digital-first engineering approach, using advanced computer modelling and simulation to refine concepts before physical prototypes were built. In 2012, Pliosaur Energy joined Autodesk's Cleantech Partnership Programme, providing access to industry-leading engineering software that accelerated development.

As the technology matured, protecting the underlying intellectual property became an important priority. A UK patent application was filed in 2014, followed later that year by an international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application, supported through funding from Innovate UK. These milestones established the foundations for the technology's future commercial development.

Recognising the importance of independent technical evaluation, Pliosaur Energy began working with Plymouth University and the Marine Innovation Centre (MARIC). Their expertise proved invaluable in validating the technology and identifying a significant design challenge relating to the platform's draught. This issue was subsequently confirmed through wave tank testing in 2019 and ultimately led to a breakthrough in turbine design that substantially improved both performance and commercial potential.

Throughout this journey, one principle has remained constant: innovation does not always require inventing everything from scratch. Wherever possible, Pliosaur Energy combines original engineering with proven technologies from other industries, allowing development effort to focus on genuine innovation while reducing costs, improving reliability and accelerating commercial deployment. The concept of floating watermills is far from new. Our innovation has been to transform that concept into a modern offshore energy platform capable of generating electricity from both tidal currents and ocean waves while also helping to remove floating plastic waste from the marine environment.

More than a decade after founding the company, I remain convinced that the expertise developed over a lifetime in offshore engineering can help solve one of today's greatest challenges. Pliosaur Energy was created to demonstrate that marine renewable energy can become a practical source of clean electricity while contributing to healthier oceans through innovative engineering. That original belief remains unchanged and continues to guide every decision we make.

Jerry Trevarthen
Founding director