Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. No commercial-scale wave power operations now exist, although a small-scale installation did operate off the coast of Portugal in and In February, U. Scotland, surrounded by the rough waters of the Atlantic and the North Sea, has become a hotbed of wave-energy research and development, with the government last year approving a megawatt wave energy installation in the Shetland Islands.
But a central challenge has proven to be the complexity of harnessing wave power, which has led to a host of designs, including writhing snake-like attenuators , bobbing buoys , even devices mounted discreetly on the ocean floor that work by exploiting differences in pressure as a wave passes by. Some devices generate the electricity on the spot and transmit it via undersea cables to shore, while others pass the mechanical energy of the wave along to land before turning it into electrical energy.
Which of these drastically divergent concepts might emerge as a winner is far from clear. From a technical point of view, operating in the ocean is far more difficult than on land; building offshore wind installations, for example, tends to be significantly more expensive than constructing wind farms onshore. Saltwater is a hostile environment for devices, and the waves themselves offer a challenge for energy harvesting as they not only roll past a device but also bob up and down or converge from all sides in confused seas.
This provides enticing opportunities for energy capture, but a challenge for optimum design. A recurring theme among wave power experts is that wave energy is where wind energy was three decades ago. At that time, engineers had not settled on the optimal design for wind turbines, but decades of ensuing research have resulted in highly sophisticated turbine designs. With wave power, some research occurred after the Arab oil embargo of the s, but since then government and commercial research and development into wave power has paled compared to wind and solar energy.
As with any energy source, the fundamental roadblock toward more widespread deployment is cost. Ultimately, the question that will determine the role of wave power in the energy transition is how much of it can actually be recovered and harnessed into power.
At present, that estimate is understood to be around 0. The projections of worldwide installation capacity are also varied. Wave power energy generation is in a comparative state of infancy to wind or solar.
Several different types of wave energy converters are being tested extensively at kW scale. One of the better-known technologies is an attenuator, which is a floating offshore device consisting of five separate sections with four flexible joints.
Ocean waves make the panels flex, which in turn pump hydraulic oil into high pressure accumulators. This turns a hydraulic motor and generates electricity. Pelamis, the first offshore WEC to generate capacity into the grid, is the perfect example of this technology.
Although Pelamis did not enjoy commercial success, the peak power of a single attenuator is estimated to be around kW this can vary drastically depending on the location. Other examples of WECs include oscillating wave columns and oscillating wave converters with the latter often being shore based , as well as point absorbers and over topping terminators—a plant in Toftestallen, Norway built in is an example.
The Toftestallen plant operated for three years before being destroyed by a severe winter storm in While private sector investment has been largely earmarked for tidal energy and offshore wind farms, there has been a notable increase of activity around wave energy power generation. This includes pilot projects, patents, ocean wave resource assessments and deployment of new WEC technologies. The US issued its first ever wave energy lease for federal waters off the West Coast in February It is expected to cover approximately 2.
This is a significant development which follows the assessment completed towards the end of last year by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which identified the coastlines of Washington and Oregon as the most promising areas for extracting clean power from the West Coast waves.
The United Kingdom UK is also at the forefront of the global wave energy sector. Organizations such as the UK Marine Energy Council, Scottish Renewables and the European Marine Energy Centre, are aiming to secure revenue support and create a more accessible way forward for the sector. According to a report by Scottish Renewables issued in , the UK now has 23 wave developers.
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