Deep Ocean Power: Panthalassa Opens Assembly Line in Southwest Washington

Panthalassa opened a new manufacturing facility in Vancouver, Washington, on Friday. The facility is located in a large warehouse near the Columbia River, formerly part of the Kaiser Shipyard. The company plans to use this site to mass-produce its wave-energy nodes on an assembly line. This marks a shift from the custom, one-at-a-time fabrication the company began in Vancouver in 2022.

The startup is based in Portland and has raised more than $300 million this year. Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist, helped the company secure $140 million in the spring. Panthalassa then raised another $225 million from venture capital groups in the summer. Industry reports now value the company at close to $2 billion.

The nodes are designed to power floating artificial intelligence hubs in the deep ocean. CEO Garth Sheldon-Coulson stated that the company aims to capture ocean energy cheaply and reliably. The technology avoids the carbon emissions, water contamination, and neighborhood noise associated with land-based data centers. Sheldon-Coulson described the output as the cheapest green electrons on the planet.

Each node floats hundreds of miles from shore. The visible structure resembles a large white orb with ladders and portals. Below the waterline, a hollow tube lifts seawater into turbines. The full assembly can stand six stories high, with most of the structure submerged. The nodes are unanchored and use the energy they generate directly rather than feeding it into electrical grids.

Panthalassa competes with at least a dozen other global businesses developing ocean energy. Oregon State University operates an $80 million wave energy hub near Newport. Many competitors use shore-anchored systems or connect directly to land grids. Panthalassa differentiates its model by operating in the open ocean without grid connections.

At full staffing, approximately 50 employees will work at the Vancouver facility. Workers will roll plate steel and use robotic welding to construct the nodes. Completed units will be shipped down the Columbia River for deployment in the deep ocean. The company intends to use this facility as a blueprint for future factories in other global locations.

Dana Hartsig, the company’s vice president of manufacturing, said the first step toward a global fleet begins at this site. The factory represents the first attempt to move from custom manufacturing to a standardized production process. This expansion tests the company’s theory that it can replicate its manufacturing model in factories around the world.