Waves to Work | Green Energy News

July 3, 2007 – Vol.12 No.15

WAVES TO WORK.

Here are two questions probably no one has an answer to. How many jetties, quays, breakwaters and ocean side piers are there in the world? How many of them could be converted to productive wave energy power plants?

Someone should do a study. Someone should take a look. Shoreline-installed wave energy holds significant promise in adding to the world’s renewable energy supply. Existing ocean taming concrete or stone structures can be converted to include wave energy conversion devices. New one’s can be built. Power grid connection is easy: It’s on land, no undersea cables are necessary. Dry land access, too, simplifies maintenance and repair.

A demonstration of one of those technologies - Wavegen’s Limpet (Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer) shoreline energy converter - has been working tirelessly on the Isle of Islay in Scotland for seven years. Carved into the rocky coastline and exposed to harsh weather, punishing waves and corrosive salt air and water, Limpet has survived and continues to provide a rated 500 kilowatts of power to the grid.

Now, after its extended trial period, Limpet’s Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology will be incorporated into the world’s first commercial breakwater wave energy powerplant. It will be part of a new breakwater being constructed on the Atlantic coast region of Mutriku in Northern Spain. The OWC powerplant will be rated at 300 kilowatts and provide enough power for 250 homes. The project will be completed and online by the winter of 2008/2009. It was purchased by the Basque Energy Board, Ente Vasco de Energia.

OWC uses the rise and fall of waves to compress air which, in turn, spins a turbine generator. Mechanical and electrical equipment are not in direct contact with highly corrosive salt water. (But salt air is hard on equipment too.) Much of the OWC power plant is a tough, concrete shell which directs and amplifies the energy of incoming ocean waves. There are no moving parts underwater that can harm marine life.

Wavegen, of Inverness, Scotland is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation

Links:

Wavegen http://www.wavegen.co.uk/