Wave power is coming of age! Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) announced that it has received an order for the world's first commercial wave power installation. In the first phase, worth $10 million (Euro 8 million), OPD will install three "Pelamis" P-750 machines with a total installed capacity of 2.25 MW. The project is located 5 km off Portugal's northern coast, near to Povoa de Varzim. A letter of intent was issued to order a further thirty Pelamis machines (20 MW) before the end of 2006 subject to satisfactory performance of the initial phase.
Each Pelamis machine measures 394 ft (120m) long by 11 ft (3.5m) wide (about the size of four train carriages) and weighs 750 tons fully ballasted. The Pelamis is a semi-submerged, articulated structure composed of cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. The wave-induced motion of these joints is resisted by hydraulic rams, which pump high-pressure oil through hydraulic motors via smoothing accumulators. The hydraulic motors drive electrical generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable.
OPD'S system was identified as the only system currently recommended for deployment in a recently announced report, (full report) 2/3/05, by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Three other wave power manufacturers are identified in the report as nearing the maturity of OPD. The EPRI report concluded that wave power is lower in total cost than wind power, its initial cost being lower and operating and maintenance costs being higher. Its very low profile makes it much less visual intrusive than wind power and it promises to be one of the most environmentally benign electrical generating devices. They stated that when compared to wind power, solar PV, and tidal power it can be characterized as having the highest power density, the least intermittency, it is continuous but highly variable and is more predictable than solar or wind. Harnessing just 24% of the available offshore wave energy resource of the U.S., at 50% efficiency, would generate as much electricity as all the conventional hydropower now installed, about 10% of our current electrical production.
It looks like we will soon have another technology to put in our bag of tricks.
Technocrati tags: wave power, renewable energy
very useful site. keep up the good work and thanks.
Posted by: OZ | June 01, 2005 at 04:12 PM