Green Light for the Worlds First Commercial Wave Farm

The initial phase will consist of three ‘Pelamis’ P-750 machines located 5km off Portugal’s northern coast near to Povoa de Varzim. The ? 8 million project will have an installed capacity of 2.25 MW and is expected to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1,500 Portuguese households whilst displacing more than 6,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional generating plant. A letter of intent has been issued to order a further 30 Pelamis machines before 2006, subject to satisfactory performance of the initial phase.

The prototype for the Portuguese machines was launched in February 2004 and is currently under test at the European Marine Energy Centre at Orkney in Scotland.

This project is being supplied by Ocean Power Delivery – Portugal SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of OPD with full rights to manufacture Pelamis machines in Portugal.

Construction began immediately on the project, which benefits from a special feed in tariff established by the Portuguese Government to support wave energy. The initial phase is also supported by the Demtec programme with a ? 1.25 million grant by the Agencia de Inovacao.

The order follows high profile meetings held recently between British and Portuguese officials at the British Embassy.

These were attended by the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, who highlighted the need for immediate action to tackle the potential impacts of climate change.

Enersis is one of Portugal’s leading renewable energy companies with 100MW of mini-hydro power and 500MW of wind farms operational or under construction plus a further 500MW under development. The company’s chairman, Goncalo Serras Pereira said, ‘After 17 years of experience developing, constructing and operating mini-hydro schemes and nine years with wind farms, we believe wave energy will be the new Portuguese endogenous renewable resource. This move in conjunction with other potential partners may win significant industrial economic benefits for Portuguese companies as the market is developed and wave energy gains competitive advantage with other renewables.’

MJ Information No: 20761