Posted on 02/23/2007 11:46:51 AM PST by aculeus
Scottish ministers have announced funding for what has been described as the world's biggest wave energy farm.
The Pelamis device has been tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) on Orkney by Leith-based company Ocean Power Delivery.
Scottish Power wants to commission four more at the same site.
Deputy First Minister Nicol Stephen announced a £13m funding package that will also allow a number of other marine energy devices to be tested.
Ocean Power Delivery has already exported the Pelamis for use in a commercial wave farm.
The large, tubular segments were taken to a site off the northern coast of Portugal last year for a project which aimed to generate enough power for 1,500 households.
At that stage the company warned that the industry could be forced to quit Scotland if there were no opportunities to use the technology closer to home.
Now Scottish Power is planning a venture which it believes could create enough power for 2,000 homes.
The biggest single handout of more than £4m will go to a Scottish Power subsidiary, CRE Energy, which will build the wave farm.
Mr Stephen said: "Today marks a vital milestone in Scotland's drive to be the world leader in the development of marine renewables."
Create jobs
Of the Pelamis scheme, he said: "This will be the world's biggest commercial wave project - significantly bigger than the major Portuguese scheme.
"Scotland has the potential to generate a quarter of Europe's marine energy and kick-starting the sector is vital if we are to create a significant industry based in Scotland and meet our long-term renewables targets."
Mr Stephen said the industry had the potential to create thousands of jobs and attract millions of pounds of investment.
Scottish Power's director of renewables, Keith Anderson, said: "This is a massive step forward.
"It will be a test of the actual devices that will be used commercially and, if successful, should help propel Scotland into the forefront of marine energy throughout the world."
'Emerging economies'
Emec managing director Neil Kermode said: "We are delighted to see this level of support from the Scottish Executive.
"It sends a clear signal that the executive is determined to push forward the development of tidal and wave technologies - technologies that will unlock the enormous renewable energy potential of our coastal waters.
"The technology is moving forward, but we must never underestimate just how difficult - and expensive - an environment this is to work in."
Friends of the Earth Scotland's chief executive, Duncan McLaren, said: "Wave and tidal power could supply a fifth of UK's electricity needs and Scotland is ideally placed to generate significant amounts of this pollution-free energy.
"It is critical that we see full-scale devices in our waters soon, otherwise the world-leading expertise Scotland has built up will rapidly depart these shores."
Green speaker on energy, Shiona Baird MSP, said: "Any investment is to be welcomed - but it pales into insignificance with the Portuguese project.
"Despite the gusto with which this announcement is being made, ministers remain determined to build more roads and expand airports, so it's going to take a lot more than this to reduce climate pollution."
© BBC MMVII
This is some cool technology. Nice to see it getting deployed.
I wish we had waves in America. We could try this too. :)
RENEWABLE ENERGY PING?
Speaking of renewable energy, does anyone recall the story of the University of Toronto researcher who was reported to have developed a method of increasing the efficiency of photo-voltaic cells by a factor of six by tapping into the infrared spectrum?
This would seem to indicate that electricity could be generated efficiently even on overcast days.
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=20812
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Paintable_plastic_solar_cells_using_quantum_dots
We could install one of these in Lake Michigan and power it by having Rosie O'Donnell repeatedly do cannonballs.
Boy, I bet Joe Kennedy (you know, the guy who is so concerned about having cheap energy for the 'poor' in the NorthEast that he is running propaganda commercial for the socialist dictator Hugo Chavez) is going to be the first to sign up to get one of these in the bay at Martha's Vineyard outside the Kennedy compound!!!
Yeah we need a wave machine next to the shore and a windmill farm a little further out in the ocean right in line with the Kennedy compound. The Kennedys aren't hypocrits are they?
For that matter move the wind farm in closer because if Ted Kennedy ever gave a speech from Martha's vineyard, energy indenpendence may really be at hand (or mouth).
This appears to be very dangerous project!
The machines may extract too much energy and dampen the ocean currents! Our seas would become stagnant and the fish would die!
The UN should investigate this before disaster strikes.
Better that Europe cut it's population and need for so much energy!
This also looks like the rich stealing all the energy from the oceans that belong to all people.
Fascinating. Good it is not paid for by the customers.
I wish we could use a tenth of the energy that fills and empties Cook Inlet every day.
I know, I know, the fishing industry/community would never allow any system.
It would be interesting if these could share infrastructure with wind generators.
TIA
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
There's a company in the UK that's making a similiar product.
Check out their web site:
http://www.oceanpowertechnologies.com
why not just mount a wind turbine in the gap between her jaws?
It seems to me that any project that involves a large amount of mechanical equipment tethered over some expanse of seabed in an area chosen for waves will eventually be reduced to a knot of twisted, corroded scrap metal strewn along some nearby beach.
This was on display (not the actual item) at the American Wind Energy Association conference in Pittsuburgh last June; very cool!
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