Poor funding climate sparks Finavera's move to Canada

It was gold that brought Jason Bak to Ireland in the first place, and now it's wind and waves that are taking him back to his native Canada.

Finavera, the alternative energy company he founded in Ireland with former colleagues three years ago, last month agreed a reverse takeover with Canadian group Cascade Minerals, and Bak now plans to spend half the year in Canada and the remaining months in his most recent home county of Donegal.

"The issue has always been funding," he says of the decision to shift the company to Canada and take a stock market listing there. "It bounces between countries. People have to be global when looking at funds - and that's what we're doing."

According to Bak, funding - and the fact that Canada is more tolerant of new developing companies than Ireland - was one of the main reasons behind the group's decision to merge with Cascade. "The culture in Canada is quicker and cheaper and right now that's where the business is," he says, adding that in Ireland there is little encouragement for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital.

While competition will be tougher in Canada - there are more than 1,000 natural resource companies, 10 per cent of which are involved in renewables - Bak believes the environment is much more conducive to the development of young companies. For him, the key thing now is for Finavera to "go public" - currently the company is 50 per cent owned by management, with Bak himself holding a large proportion of that, and the remainder being held by investors in Ireland, the UK and Switzerland.

"We have got to do things in the public where people can see us," he says.

"A listing is a strong tool - it's about showing the market you can deliver on a business plan."

All being well, Finavera plans to float on the Toronto Stock Exchange next month and follow this with a Frankfurt listing. If this goes to plan, a listing on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) should follow, says Bak, who while not ruling out a move to the Irish market at some point in the future, says the lack of liquidity for young stocks in Ireland is a deterrent.

Vancouver-based Cascade was a cash shell - basically the framework of a company with funds but no business operations. From now on, Cascade's business will be Finavera - a company that under the direction of Bak is aiming to become the biggest player in the wave energy market and a significant player in the wind energy sector. The group also has a gas field in Lough Allen in the northwest, which Bak believes has the potential to turn the Republic into a net gas exporter. This was separated from Finavera Renewables in April last year and now trades as Finavera Gas. Drilling is scheduled to start next year.

Globally, the wind energy market has grown by 30-40 per cent over the past five years, and Canada alone is expected to see growth of 70 per cent this year. This, the rising cost of fossil fuels, and the fact that no one has yet monopolised the wave energy market, is something that Bak is seeking to take advantage of.

Still, while the group is currently working on 12 wind projects in Canada capable of generating 1,500 megawatts of power and a further 180 megawatts worth of projects in Ireland - enough to power 108,000 average European homes - Bak's heart really lies with the sea.

"The potential that comes along with being successful in wave energy is huge," he says, adding that wave energy has the potential to contribute 10 per cent of the world's power, though admittedly not for the next 20-30 years. "Wave energy is a lot more efficient than wind. A lot of off-shore real estate is cheap."

With only four serious competitors currently operating in the wave energy arena, Bak believes Finavera can "grab the most market share fairly quickly" helped by its June acquisition of wave power specialist AquaEnergy.

This gave Finavera control of AquaBuoy, a commercially viable technology capable of generating electricity from waves.

According to Bak, Ireland, Portugal and the UK are all keen to develop a wave energy market, and while Portugal is taking the lead with significant government grants, Ireland too has great potential.

"Off the coast of southwest Ireland has the best wave energy potential in the world," he says.

As many as 60 kilowatts of electricity can be generated per metre of wave off the southwest coast, compared with only 30 kilowatts per metre in Portugal, he says.

Still, grid connections in Ireland are a problem and while the group is on course with its Portuguese project to connect to the grid there by 2009, and hopes to do the same in Washington around a similar time, the Irish project is more up in the air.

If - and according to Bak it's a big if - Finavera secures one of the 1,300 megawatts of grid connections up for allocation next year, then it could in theory start generating its first Irish wave energy revenue also by 2009.

So while it seems highly probable that Finavera's immediate future lies with the chains of small buoys to be found bobbing with the waves off the world's coasts, Bak isn't stopping there.

The gold-and-diamond-explorer-cum-energy-enthusiast's aim is to turn Finavera into a utility that not only generates power, but also licenses power-generating technology.