Zero Carbon Capital (ZCC) is proud to announce its lead investment in Porpoise Power’s £1.2 million pre-seed funding round, alongside Creator Fund and Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE). This investment marks Porpoise Power’s official launch from stealth as it commercialises breakthrough tidal stream technology.
Porpoise Power is a UK-based startup spun out from the University of Oxford pioneering a transformative approach to tidal energy, positioning it as a scalable and reliable renewable energy source. The company’s innovative technology addresses key challenges in tidal power generation, unlocking its potential to become a major contributor to the global clean energy transition.
Porpoise Power’s bio-inspired innovation enables energy production in a larger range of tidal flows and water depths than has previously been possible. This significantly expands the number of viable deployment sites and total potential capacity for tidal energy, transforming it from a niche technology into a mainstream solution for baseload renewable power. Critically, their breakthrough system makes tidal energy cost-competitive with offshore wind, but unlike wind, it can deliver predictable baseload power like much more expensive nuclear generation. With this innovation, Porpoise Power unlocks the potential to meet the entirety of the UK’s baseload electricity demand from tidal power alone with just four 30 km X 30 km arrays.
Zero Carbon Capital investment is supporting the Porpoise Power team as they progress technology development, model LCOE at scale, and conduct trials at UK tidal sites.
Tidal stream energy has long held promise as a predictable, local, zero-carbon energy source. But historical attempts to commercialise it have been hampered by limited viable locations, high capital costs, and technological under performance leading to low power output. Porpoise Power changes the game.
Drawing inspiration from dolphins, the company has developed a highly efficient, oscillating hydrofoil system. Their next generation hydropower design operates efficiently across a wide range of tidal conditions, both in speed and depth, and significantly increases the capacity factor compared to traditional tidal turbines. Their novel system is stable and robust, and designed to minimise ecological disruption, making it suitable for deployment even in environmentally sensitive areas. These engineering advances unlock an order of magnitude more viable tidal sites globally.
The result is a solution with the potential to deliver firm, predictable, clean power at competitive costs. This represents a transformative leap for tidal energy — one that could make it a foundational pillar of a decarbonised grid.
Zero Carbon Capital were particularly impressed by the strength and diversity of the founding team. CEO John Kennedy brings deep experience scaling mission-driven businesses and leading deeptech ventures, including Green & Black’s, Wayfair, and medtech startup Adlens. Co-founder Adrian Thomas, Professor of Biomechanics at Oxford University, is an expert in unsteady fluid dynamics and bioinspired engineering, and was previously the founder of Animal Dynamics. They are joined by Hilary Struthers, a former Shell executive and NED at Low Carbon, and Martin Hall, a seasoned marine and embedded systems engineer.
The team combines deep technical credibility, a pragmatic commercial approach, and a strong climate mission — all essential attributes for tackling the hardest climate problems.
Global electricity demand is set to double by 2050, driven by electrification, AI, and reindustrialisation. As highlighted in Lazard’s 2024 Levelized Cost of Energy report, a diverse generation mix is needed to meet baseload needs. While wind and solar continue to scale, they require increasing amounts of grid balancing, storage, and overbuild.
Tidal energy, by contrast, is predictable and synchronous with gravitational cycles, offering a clean, stable, and complementary counterpart to intermittent sources. Porpoise Power’s design massively increases the global potential for tidal stream generation, opening up new geographies and reducing total system costs by displacing peaking fossil fuel plants.
The Porpoise team is now advancing toward pilot deployments at UK test sites, supported by a clear technology roadmap and rigorous techno-economic analysis. With their next fundraising round Porpoise Power aims to deploy hundreds of kilowatts of grid-connected tidal generation capacity, supported by a UK Contract for Difference (CfD) to demonstrate the technology’s commercial readiness and pave the way for wider adoption.
This is exactly the kind of company we like to back: a world-class scientific founding team, pioneering a transformative technology, with the potential for outsized climate impact.
Zero Carbon Capital are proud to support Porpoise Power on their mission to bring reliable, renewable, affordable energy to the grid — and to give tidal energy the role it deserves in our zero-carbon future.
