First commercial wave energy plant to locate off Portugese coast |
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Sat, 21 May 2005 21:20
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Scottish firm Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) has won the contract to build the world's first commercial wave power plant. This plant will be operational by 2006 and will provide electricity to 1,500 homes.
OPD's Norwegian partner Norsk Hydro revealed that the farm would be built about five kilometers (3.1 miles) off Portugal's northern coast, near Povoa de Varzim. Norsk Hydro added that initially OPD would provide three wave power generation units with a capacity of 2.25 megawatts to the Portuguese renewable energy group Enersis at an estimated cost of 8 million euros ($10.12 million). Based on the feasibility, the project could be extended to cover more areas.
The project intends to buy around 30 more generators from OPD if this initial project is successful.
| The power generators look like submerged sausages floating on water. OPD's Pelamis P-750 wage energy converter metal unit will use wave motion to produce electricity by pumping high-pressure fluids to motors. A prototype of these generators has been tested since February 2004 in the Orkney Islands.
Norsk Hydro issued a statement saying, "The farm will...displace more than 6,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be produced by conventional hydrocarbon-fueled power plants." This was indeed good news as the delicate environmental balance around the Portuguese coast will remain unaffected. "If all goes well, many additional sites producing up to a total several hundred MW could be developed along the coast," the company added. Norsk Hydro, the energy and aluminum group is a major partner in this project and owns 16 percent of OPD.
OPD Managing Director Richard Yemm said, "This is a significant milestone for our company and for wave energy. We see this order as just the first step in developing the Portuguese market, which is anticipated to be worth up to a billion euros over the next 10 years."
Enersis SPGS power company chairman Goncalo Serras Pereira was equally enthusiastic, "We believe wave energy will be the new indigenous, renewable resource in Portugal," he said.
OPD is currently engaged in talks with Scottish Power, which has shown interest in installing a similar wave farm in the UK.
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