Pelamis plugs Portugal into wave power
So many mariners, pounded by the merciless power of the sea, must have wondered what it would take to get this huge force on our side. The answer, developed over the last decade by an Edinburgh based company, has been forthcoming and wave power is now being harnessed following the commissioning of the world’ s first commercial wave farm, called Pelamis, or ‘ sea-snake’ , three miles off the north coast of Portugal.
The wave farm, which in its first phase will generate clean electricity for up to 1,500 homes at peak output, consists of three semi-submerged, 142m long, 700 ton carbon steel cylindrical wave energy converters designed and built by Pelamis Wave Power. The Agucadoura station will eventually add another 25 Pelamis units, generating 21MW of power whilst saving 60,000 tons of CO2 per year compared to a conventional fossil fuel plant.
Each wave converter is comprised of four articulated sections which move up and down as the wave passes. At the hinges between sections, hydraulic rams use the wave motion to drive generators, producing power which is carried by undersea cable to the Agucadoura substation and fed into the Portuguese national grid.
Pelamis Wave Power needed vessels for both sea trials of the machines and their eventual installation in Portugal. Being based in Edinburgh, they looked toward Shetland Island company Delta Marine to supply workboats.
The first workboat on the job, the multicat type Voe Venture, proved itself capable as a trials vessel, pulling the Pelamis machines behind to see how they reacted in sea conditions.
Delta Marine’s David McNaughtan was visiting at that time and tells MJ that it wasn’t long before he realised that the Voe Viking, at that moment just coming off the drawing board, would be perfect for the next stage of the operation. The Voe Viking is a 26m Damen Multi Cat 2611 with two Effer 180.000 3S deck cranes that can lift 10 tons at 16 metres, and a towing winch with 30 tons of pull, amongst other equipment.
‘Availability of deck space, size of cranes, layout of the vessel and towing capability were all just what they needed, said McNaughtan. ‘The Pelamis team said that they couldn’t have done better if they had sat down and designed it themselves.’
Pelamis is working with the UK’s South West Development Agency (SWDA), which will build the UK’s first facility to demonstrate commercial scale wave power. Four developers will connect to the ‘WaveHub’, a socket on the seabed off the north coast of Cornwall. One of them, WestWave, a joint venture between E.ON and Ocean Prospect, hopes to have up to seven Pelamis units operational during 2010. The UK government has committed £4.5m to WaveHub, which the SWDA estimates could create 1,800 jobs and bring £560m into the British economy.
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