Ireland’s national electricity company, is investing £3million in Marine Current Turbines.

In addition, ESB’s retail subsidiary, ESB Independent Energy has signed a five year Power Purchase Agreement to buy all of the electricity output from the SeaGen tidal facility which will be sold as part of its green energy offering to its customers.  ESB will be one of the first utilities in the world to provide tidal energy to its customers.
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A cooperation agreement covering the development of wave power technology has been signed by Swedish utility company Vattenfall AB and Wavebob Ltd of Ireland. Under the terms of the agreement the two companies will collaborate on bringing prototype wave power devices to readiness for full-scale commercial wave power farms.
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The energy would be obtained from Cape Point to St. Helena Bay in the west and Port Elizabeth in the east, says Wikus van Niekerk, professor and director of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at the University of Stellenbosch.
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Iberdrola Renewables Tests Wavepower
The renewables unit of Spanish utility Iberdrola has begun testing a wave energy pilot plant in Santona, Cantabria. The company has begun on-shore testing of the operation of the internal components of the first buoy, manufactured in the United States and named Power Take Off (PTO).

She is more used to riding the waves off the Cornish coast than making money from them. But Nikki Meek, a former world champion dinghy sailor, has attracted £12m of venture capital funding for OreCon, the wave-energy company spun out of Plymouth University six years ago.
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California; 18 December 2007: Pacific Gas & Electric, the large Northern California utility, has signed a power purchase agreement with Finavera Renewables for 2 megawatts of electricity that will come from a wave farm, which Finavera will build 2.5 miles off the coast near California's Humboldt County.

Ideally, the wave farm will start producing power in 2012. It will offset 245 tons of carbon dioxide annually, and if it succeeds, Finavera will expand the wave farm to 100 megawatts.  "With PG&E behind us, we will be able to go to a bank, if we can show there is no technology risk, to get financing," said Jason Bak, Finavera's CEO, in an interview. The exact location of the wave farm will be determined by the location of onshore power lines and electrical stations.

 
Finavera makes a device called the Aquabuoy, a buoy connected to a long underwater piston. As the buoy bobs up and down on the waves, it pushes the piston, which pressurizes a chamber filled with seawater. The pressure cranks a turbine and electricity is made.  A full-scale buoy from Finavera will be capable of generating 250 kilowatts, enough for 80 homes. The 2-megawatt field will consist of eight devices. A 100-megawatt array of them could be squeezed into a few square miles on the sea.

Several companies and university laboratories are experimenting with ways to harness tides and waves to produce power. Some small-wave and tidal-power devices exist, but mostly it's an industry in the experimental phase. Unlike wind or sunlight, waves and tides are fairly predictable, a major plus for utilities looking for stable green sources of power. Sea water is also more than 800 times denser than air at sea level, which means wave farms or tidal turbines can produce quite a bit of power with only a little equipment and real estate.

Ten years from now, the U.S. could produce 10 gigawatts of wave power and 3 gigawatts of tidal power, said Roger Bedard, ocean energy program leader for the Electric Power Research Institute and an admitted optimist on the subject. That's enough for 4.3 million homes (assuming 3 kilowatts a home).

  

Bedard further estimated that there is a potential 2,100 terawatt-hours worth of wave energy off the shores of the U.S. and 250 terawatt-hours of it could be harvested economically. That's about 6 percent of U.S. electrical demand. The catch? Neptune doesn't play ball. A prototype Finavera put in the ocean off the coast of Oregon sank at the conclusion of a recent test. The company was trying to pull the buoy out of the sea when it began taking on water and sank. Finavera will try to recover it in January and determine what went wrong. A valve may have accidentally opened, said Bak. "The main thing we learned is 'make sure you have a lot of air bags handy,'" he said. "With more air bags, the boat could have towed it to shore."

Verdant Power, which put six tidal turbines in New York's East River earlier this year, found that the strong currents have been shearing the tips of the rotor blades and bending some of the bolts that hold on the blades. Now on News.com

On the bright side, these are likely conquerable problems. The Aquabuoy actually performed well on tests prior to the mishap, Bak said. Building this equipment, inserting it into place, and then connecting wave and tidal systems to the grid with underwater cables also costs quite a bit. Finavera's long-term goal is to have the Aquabuoys produce power at 5 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour. That's more expensive than coal (3 cents) or natural gas (4 to 5 cents) but less than offshore wind turbines (15 cents) or solar (18 or more cents, depending on the circumstances.) "We want to be cheaper than offshore wind," he said.

Environmental concerns are also a major issue. Most wave technology can't be seen from shore, but it can get hooked into boat engines and, possibly, disturb marine life. Over the next three years, Finavera will be in contact with groups and organizations that have an interest in the coastline, including crabbers, surfers, and residents, Bak said.

 

1 October 2007: Wave energy company Aquamarine Power has joined forces with Scottish and Southern Energy’s subsidiary, Renewable Technology Ventures Ltd (RTVL), to form one of the leading companies in the marine energy field.

SSE has made an initial investment of £6.3m in the new company, which has also secured further £1.5m investment from Sigma Capital Group plc.

To be known as Aquamarine Power Ltd, the new company plans to be the first in the world to deploy both wave and tidal devices on a commercial scale.

Aquamarine Power Ltd will continue work on the Oyster hydro-electric wave power device, and will also deliver a new tidal device.

Chief Executive of SSE, Ian Marchant, said: “We believe this is the first consolidation in the marine energy field and it’s a clear sign that the industry is maturing. The team at Aquamarine Power are inventive and entrepreneurial, yet have significant experience in the marine energy field.

“This is a great fit with what we are doing and is another contribution we can make to tackling climate change, which is one of the most serious issues facing our planet. It will also strengthen Scotland’s position as a leader in this field.”

Aquamarine Power was established in 2005 by Allan Thomson, the most experienced wave power developer in the country, who developed the world’s first commercial wave energy plant on Islay.

The company has been working with partners, including the wave power research team at Queen’s University Belfast, headed by Professor Trevor Whitaker, to develop the Oyster device – which is scheduled for full scale testing at EMEC in Orkney within the next six months. A year later they aim to deploy the first Oyster Hydro-Electric Wave Farm for demonstration and testing.

Oyster captures wave energy and transmits it as high pressure water, which is pumped into onshore hydro-electric power conversion plant.

RTVL has been developing underwater tidal turbine demonstrator, and the new company will finalise the design and plan to install a 2.4MW demonstrator at the EMEC tidal test site, Orkney, in 2009.

The Aquamarine Power management team will run the new company with support from SSE, and will identify and develop commercial sites for both technologies across the globe in the coming years.

Allan Thomson, who will stay on as a non-executive director of the new company, said he believed the combination of the two companies was good news, saying: “We have a world class partnership - unrivalled expertise in marine energy combined with the finest engineering skills and the track record of a successful FTSE 100 company. With this combination we believe we can surge ahead in marine energy technology.”

Dr. Siân McGrath, Aquamarine’s Business Development Manager stated that the new company will be owned 50% by SSE and 50% by the existing Aquamarine Power shareholders and the recently launched Sigma Sustainable Energy Fund II.

The company will be based in Edinburgh. The Oyster device is currently being manufactured by Isleburn at their Nigg facility in Easter Ross from where it will be towed to Orkney in the coming months for sea testing at EMEC, the marine energy testing centre.

Ends

For further information contact Jane Cumming at Platform PR on 01463 783018 or 07900 917142 or Stan Arnaud on 07900 917141.

 

Finavera Renewables Builds Prototype of Seven-Story Offshore Buoy
Oregon; 11 July 2007: Taller than a seven story building, it will float more than 90 percent submerged beneath the chilly waters off Oregon’s coast. Its mission: coax electricity from the ceaseless motion of the wide, blue Pacific Ocean – eventually.

Finavera Renewables, a leading developer of wind turbines, has charged Oregon Iron Works in Clackamas County with the construction of a prototype ocean buoy capable of harnessing the waves for power.

“We have incredible experience in the marine fabrication environment, so this is a natural extension of a talent and a skill that we already possess,” said Chandra Brown, the company’s vice president. “We known how to build for the salt water environment: it’s such a harsh environment, you need some expertise to build a good product.”

In this case, that good product is a one-half scale buoy that will be anchored off shore this summer to test the feasibility of one idea for harnessing wave energy. The largest single component of the design is an 80 foot tall “acceleration tunnel,” which will be entirely submerged when the unit is in place.  A piston will be suspended in the middle of the tunnel, which is about 10 feet in diameter and open at both ends. The piston will be neutrally buoyant, so that when a wave passes underneath the float on the ocean’s surface, the distance between the piston and the float will increase.

This action will stretch and constrict a heavy-duty rubber hose manufactured by Dunlop in the United Kingdom, forcing the water inside it through a turbine. When the float above drops into the trough between waves, an identical hose on the bottom of the piston will do likewise – creating a steady flow of water through the turbine to generate electricity.

The system is, in short, a wave-powered pump. The prototype under construction in OIW’s workshop will not actually include a turbine. Instead, it will carry instruments to measure how much water it pumps, and how fast, in order to determine if such a system could efficiently generate electricity.  “You put the test device in the water to collect data,” said David Gibson, the company’s renewable energy program manager. “The whole idea behind all this is to get the cost down.

The company also has a contract with Ocean Power Technology, which is pursuing an alternative approach.  “We consider ourselves to be device neutral,” said Brown. “There are many different devices under development right now.”  To facilitate the development of wave energy, Brown and Gibson joined OWET – the Ocean Wave Energy Trust.  “It’s a new nonprofit that has just been formed in the last few months to be a clearinghouse for information related to the field,” said Brown.  OWET may soon see an infusion of cash from the state government – $4.2 million, part of a broader $28 million fund meant to foster innovation in Oregon, which is under debate in the closing weeks of the state legislature.

“Wave energy will have to be part of the renewable energy mix. I believe it’s an important piece of the pie” Brown said. “It’s not going to take over from wind, but it does have certain advantages. Waves are continuous; wind stops. Waves are predictable; wind isn’t. Water is much denser than air, so the amount of energy you can generate is potentially much greater.  “It’s a great resource, but we’re in the beginning stages right now. It’s where wind was 20 years ago.”

 

27 April 2007: The Wave Energy developer Wave Dragon Ltd has taken the first major step to deploy the Worlds Largest Wave Energy Converter (WEC) by submitting their Environmental Impact Statement. This follows almost two years of Environmental Impact Assessment consultations, studies and surveys. The Wave Dragon Project is part funded by European Objective 1 funds through the Welsh Assembly Government.

Hans Christian Sørensen (Chairman of the Wave Dragon Board) stated today; “This is an important milestone in the commercialisation of Wave Energy in general and Wave Dragon technology in particular. Wave Dragon is, through this application, taking the first step in establishing a 70MW wave power plant in the Celtic Sea by 2010.”

The project is the result of 20 years of research and development and will deploy a 7MW WEC off the Dale and Marloes Peninsula (Pembrokeshire) during the Summer of 2008.

What happens now:

Wave Dragon has submitted three offshore consents to the DTI and DEFRA, who now have several weeks to consider the proposals and liaise with the required Statutory Consultees. Any concerns arising, will then be forwarded and discussed with Wave Dragon before a formal decision is made. We will also be working with The Crown Estates and Pembrokeshire Coastal National Parks Authority towards a Lease and Planning Permission respectively.

Timetable:
May - Dec 2007 - Final design and procurement
End 2007 - Wave Dragon hopes to have successful acquired our consents
Jan 2008 - Constructions begins
Summer 2008 - Deployment and grid connection

For further information please contact Iain Russell ( +44 (0)7968 060 483) or
Hans Christian Sørensen (Wave Dragon Chairman) ( +45 28 110 219)