Black Rock Tidal Power, a subsidiary of German energy company Schottel Hydro,  has raised $15 million in equity and debt to install its first tidal power platform in the Bay of Fundy off Parrsboro, N.S.

The company said in a press release it has raised $10.5 million in private equity from a  group of investors led by Montreal-based Inerjys Ventures, an investment company that specializes in clean energy. The other investors are the Singapore-based cleantech investor Envirotek and shareholders of the Schottel Group.

As well as the $10.5 million in private equity, Black Rock Tidal has secured $4.5 million in debt for the project.

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“The successful closing of the equity finance in our project sets the path for further Triton projects in the Bay of Fundy and globally,” Black Rock General Manager Sue Molloy said in the statement. “This is good news for the tidal industry in Nova Scotia and an important step towards proving the commercial viability of our technology and of tidal energy in general.”

The Black Rock statement said the company will use the funds to install a Triton energy platform, a floating structure that carries a number of Schottel Instream Turbines that can generate up to 2.5 MW from tidal currents. It plans to install the device in the autumn of 2016 at the Black Rock berth at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy, or FORCE, in Parrsboro. FORCE comprises a substation, grid connection, sea cables and four berths for turbine facilities.

Black Rock has also been granted the developmental tidal feed-in tariff and the respective power purchase agreement, which means it can sell electricity to Nova Scotia Power at a predetermined rate. The electricity generated will be fed into the North American power supply system over a 15-year period.

“Inerjys is convinced that Schottel Hydro and Black Rock Tidal Power offer the most cost-effective tidal energy technology at a growth stage and for future large-scale projects,” said Stephan Ouaknine, Managing Partner at Inerjys.

Schottel Hydro Managing Director Niels A. Lange added: “We are proud that we have raised 70 percent private equity investment for this project, which we consider to be the first project in the tidal industry at this scale financed under purely commercial terms.”

The statement said Schottel Hydro and Black Rock will soon begin to seek backers for the second 2.5 MW project, which already have agreements to sell electricity to Nova Scotia Power.