This adventurer found a mission in wave energy

Seabased profile: Project Management Officer Daniel Käller

Daniel Käller was only 19 when he started working on Seabased’s wave energy technology a decade ago. It was just supposed to be a summer gig after he graduated in 2011. As it turned out, helping to build an emerging industry in the challenging environment of the world’s oceans was a perfect match for a low-key Swedish guy who spends his free time doing extreme sports.

“When I started I didn’t know what to expect. I was really nervous—it was so scary going down to the big city to work with doctors and professors, but I quickly got comfortable,” he said.

Growing up with wave energy

Daniel started as a project assistant at Uppsala University in the Department of Electrical Engineering working on the marine substation electrical system for an R&D project at Islandsberg. After that he worked on the prototype of the marine current generator and final assembly of the generator and dry testing in the lab. Next, he was pegged to work on the prototype development and installation of the Wave Energy Converter. In 2012, he followed the technology to Seabased and became team leader for the final assembly of the generator with responsibility for 20 builders. Two years later, Daniel was promoted to Installation and Maintenance officer where he was responsible for installation in Sweden, Ghana, and elsewhere.

Since then he’s grown into the role of Project Management Officer responsible for developing and managing feasibility studies and site visits, planning and executing installation projects, and managing grants…among other things.

“When I started,” he said, “we were a Swedish engineering company. We were like Saab, built by engineers for engineers… Now we’re more like the US startups; the business part of it feels like it’s being done a completely different way.” What has remained from the early days, he said, is the sense that he’s surrounded by people who are excited by what they do and positive about the company and its future.

 “We’ve always had good people involved who liked to learn and like what they’re doing and that made work a lot more fun,” he said.

The feeling is mutual. “Daniel brings great energy to the team,” said Seabased CEO Laurent Albert. “He’s smart and flexible; he approaches every new project with enthusiasm and he’s quick to learn and gain expertise. He is a strong team player.”

Since he’s participated in the evolution of the company from R&D to the current process of preparing for industrial ramp-up, his deep knowledge of the company has only grown more important.

“I have actually built the generator, so I have a hands-on understanding of how it works and how it’s put together. I have installed demonstration parks on two continents. I have seen what we have done before, and I can help take that into account when we do something new. In most of the cases I can explain what we learned, including what we learned not to do again,” Daniel said. “We’re still quite a small company and we all have to do a lot of different things. I couldn’t just sit in the corner working on one thing. We have really effective communication and a lot of flexibility; that’s how small companies survive.” 

Project Management Officer Daniel Käller

intrepid at work and play

When he’s not working, Daniel’s often skiing, kite-skiing, roller skiing, hunting moose or engaging in some other adventure sport. Working at a company that is trying to bring a whole new industry to the world can be risky, as jobs go, compared to working for an established company in a mature industry. Daniel, though, as an adventurous soul, is less focused on the risk than on the opportunity to contribute to something he really believes in.

“Of course I think renewables are the future,” Daniel said. “Either we stop using electricity or find an environmentally friendly way to create it, those are the only two options we have. I truly believe in wave energy and I believe we can make it work, not just for Seabased but for other companies as well. If other companies succeed, that’s good for us too. Nobody remembers who built the first wind turbine now, it’s about building capacity to power the world with clean energy.  It’s really cool to start a new industry and a whole new way of thinking.”

Seabased to speak at Sustainable Energy for Africa Conference

Seabased CEO Laurent Albert and Energy and Environment Manager Francisco Francisco PhD are honored to have been asked to speak at the SE4A 2021 conference to be held in Cotonou from 08 thru 11 November 2021.

 The two will present together on aspects of wave energy in Africa including:

• The advantages of West Africa’s moderate and steady wave climate in producing electrical power

• How the predictability of wave can offset some of the intermittency issues experienced with other African renewable sources

Access to energy is essential to growth and development around the world, and many African nations have eagerly embraced renewables as part of their strategy for future growth. The wave climate in West Africa, though less vigorous than in Northern Europe, is very steady and could produce significant amounts of electricity year-round. Seabased wave energy technology has already been tested offshore near Ada, Ghana.

Sustainable Energy for Africa is an international conference organized jointly by the Benin National Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (ANSALB) and by the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences of Belgium (KAOW-ARSOM).

 Laurent Albert joined Seabased as CEO in 2019. He is a French civil engineer and MBA who has previously held senior executive positions in Europe and Asia in both high-end tech and marine renewables in Naval Group (formerly DCNS), Naval Energies, and TechnipFMC.

Francisco Francisco has a PhD in Electrical Engineering and conducts feasibility studies for Seabased’s commercial wave energy parks. Originally from Mozambique, and now a resident of Sweden. Prior to joining Seabased in 2017Francisco was a research fellow with OceaNET - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions where he developed hardware based on sonar systems for sub-sea environmental monitoring.

Marine Construction Specialist Jason Bayne Joins Seabased as Director of Installation and Commissioning

Seabased has engaged Jason Bayne as Director of Installation and Commissioning. Jason brings more than 20 years’ experience in subsea construction and installation globally, including project management and offshore execution for many projects that were the first of their kind in the maritime industry. That experience of industry firsts, breaking old paradigms, is one of the things that attracted him to Seabased.

“Three years ago, I was supporting Seabased on transport and installation scopes of work around the globe,” Jason said. “Seabased is a never-before-seen solution and I wanted to be part of that. It’s a really unique opportunity.”

Seabased CEO Laurent Albert noted that Jason is highly professionally versatile. “He has overseen installation in every kind of environment around the globe and he’s a creative thinker when it comes to iterating the process toward increased efficiency. He’s also an excellent team player.”

Jason, an American living in Norway, grew up on the water of the Great Lakes in the US, doing water sports. The father of four is still an active surfer and sailor.

“I’m much more comfortable on water than on land,” he said. “I’d live at sea. If Norway had a warmer climate, I’d be living on a floating house right now.”

His primary role at Seabased is to ensure the company has a cost effective, efficient, and environmentally sensitive transport and installation methodology for the commercial projects in its pipeline. The installation itself, he notes, is simple relative to other offshore construction since there’s no drilling of the seabed and the work can be done with light vessels. 

With a BSME and MBA in Ocean Industries, Jason has worked both as an entrepreneur and for Fortune 500 companies, garnering experience in areas from Offshore Operations to Project Development and Technical Subsea Construction Development to Market Strategy. Over the years he’s had several personality tests to gauge whether he would be a good match for a given team. The results are always the same:

“I specialize in seeing the big picture,” he said. “I tend to see things holistically; I can spot anomalies.”

“But I’ve also had 10 years in executive level corporate functions where I’ve been exposed to how to reach clients through development of commercially viable solutions.“

He’s also very practical, and fits well with the Seabased team which approaches problem-solving in a straightforward, nuts-and-bolts fashion.

Jason Bayne Director of Installation and Commissioning

Seabased is one of the first companies to tackle the goal of using waves for utility-scale electrical generation; and one of the few from those early days to weather an investment climate that sat in the doldrums for years. Despite wave energy’s immense promise, skepticism that it would ever become commercially viable resulted in many investors shying away from the industry, so the funds for the tests and innovation needed to bring companies’ efforts to fruition weren’t available. Through it all, Seabased kept plugging away. By joining the team at this juncture, when investment in renewable energy is taking off, Jason has the opportunity to play a key role in helping shape the remaining stages of the certification and commercialization process so Seabased can take its place among the renewables fighting Climate Change. That’s a challenge he relishes.

“The management is fantastic,” he said. “They’re good at focusing, good at giving direction, and excellent at listening.”  

“Seabased is in the first mover position and as soon as the certification milestone is achieved, Seabased will be ready to deploy all over the world,” he said. “It’s like Tesla: they had the development pains as a pioneer in new technology, but once they crossed the threshold of viability, a new standard was set, and the industry around the globe embraced it.”

Seabased is closing in on that breakthrough moment: One more first to add to Jason’s world first collection.

Seabased Supply Chain Director Heidi Ødegården Channels Offshore EPCI Skills Into Wave Energy

Seabased has engaged Heidi Ødegården as Supply Chain Director. Heidi brings more than 25 years’ experience in Engineering, Procurement, Construction, and Installation (EPCI) contracts including roles as manager of subcontractor deliveries, senior purchaser, assembly supervisor, and offshore operations coordinator. She has worked in India, China, Canada, the United States, and Europe.

 Heidi’s current role includes globally sourcing the materials and services required to assemble the components for the turnkey wave energy parks in Seabased’s project pipeline. That includes finding high quality parts and materials located near planned projects so as to keep costs and lifecycle CO2 footprint low while potentially creating local jobs at the site. Heidi, who has held several roles in project management and worked as Health Safety Environment and Quality manager, is also overseeing safety and assembly documentation necessary for the company’s certification process towards DNVGL in preparation for industrial ramp-up.  

 Though she has several hats to wear as the company works through its certification process, that works for her. “When you do it for the team, it’s a different feeling than when some guy on the other side of the world says ‘You fit this box so you do this.’ I hate being in a box.“

 “Heidi is a huge asset to the team,” said Seabased CEO Laurent Albert. “She’s very knowledgeable, very meticulous. There are a lot of details in this industry and she's excellent at keeping track of all of them. She also brings a lot of enthusiasm and humor.”

In addition to decades of experience, Heidi has an extensive network in the offshore industry that gives her a strong advantage in finding the best solutions. “I have a network who can deliver,” she said.

 Heidi, who grew up in the coastal village of Grimstad, Norway, loves to be out on the waves, on a vessel loaded with heavy industrial equipment – such as tons of mooring chain - to be installed in the sea. She likes to be in the middle of the action.

 “Chain is like water. It’s challenging to work with,” she said. “It can cause serious damage if you don’t know how to treat it. If you get a knot on the chain you’re in trouble. If it starts running on its own, you run too, it the opposite direction! I’m fascinated by the challenge of loading it in an organized and safe manner.”

Supply Chain Director Heidi Ødegården

Heidi in her chain loading days

Only about 3% of employees in offshore are women; it was less when Heidi started. When she was a girl, her mother gave her an interesting piece of advice: “She told me not to learn how to type, because if I did I would wind up as a secretary,” Heidi recalls. When she was working for a mooring company and the leadership refused her an offshore role because she wasn’t an engineer, Heidi paid for her own offshore basic safety training program and was rewarded with an operations coordinator job on an offshore project. In her career, the only traditionally female role she’s held was when she did a short stint as a flight attendant for a Spanish airline because she wanted to live in Spain and the airline industry had many of the same safety requirements the offshore industry had. She left that job when her former boss called her and said “I’m in a new company. It’s total chaos. Please come and help create some order back in my life.”

 Throughout her career, Heidi found ways to open doors to the roles and work experiences she wanted.  At Seabased, she continues to be a pioneer, as a leader in one of the world’s first ocean wave energy companies.

 “I really love the team and the extreme diversity of the people,” Heidi said. “There’s no echo chamber. Everyone brings a unique perspective. And I like the opportunity to be at Seabased in this moment when it’s about to become a commercial reality and I can develop the systems in the way I think will benefit the project. Bringing my experience to a company in this stage of development in a new industry is a big challenge that I am enjoying taking on.”