Pelamis, the wave power technology firm, has been placed into administration.

On Friday, the company said its decision was made with "regret", but explained that it had been unable to secure necessary funding for future technology development.

Blair Nimmo and Gary Fraser of KPMG have since been appointed as Joint Administrators of the firm.

In a statement Pelamis said it had "been unable to secure the additional funding required for further development of the Company's market leading wave energy technology.

"As a result of this the board has reluctantly moved to appoint an administrator to assess the options for securing the future for the business and employees of Pelamis.

"Pelamis is the world's most advanced wave energy technology and company. It recently received a strong endorsement of this leading position from independent consultants following a series of due diligence exercises.

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"This work included detailed assessments of the onward commercial viability of the technology and designs. The combination of over 350 man-years of experience in the team, some 15,000 hours of real grid connected test data and intensive parallel R&D work gives Pelamis a unique platform from which to develop and demonstrate the viability of its technology for commercial deployment at scale."

It concluded: "The directors and employees of Pelamis are dedicated to the success of this revolutionary technology, and are committed to working with the administrator when appointed, the Scottish and UK Governments and any future partners to ensure its success."

Neil Kermode, of the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) commented on the move, saying: "EMEC is saddened to hear that its oldest customer has gone into administration. As a Scottish world leader Pelamis have been one of the icons of the marine renewables industry, so we are absolutely gutted at this setback.

"It is all the more galling when we know that marine energy has the potential to be a major supplier of power to the UK. But just like anybody who has been to sea, we know how hard it is out there, and trying to build a new power source was never going to be easy.

"Today's announcement is undoubtedly a big setback in the mission to learn how to harvest energy from the sea, but the prize is still there."

(JP/CD)