World's First Wave Power Plant Opens In Europe ...
A Babcock and Brown project.
Does Elisabeth Nosworthy even know it exists ...
Excerpt from DailyTech.com:
World's First Wave Power Plant Opens In Europe
24 September 2008
New "sea snake" wave plant will carry a price tag of around $13.1M USD and will generate 2.25 MW
With the rush of alternative energy interest, initial enthusiasm has been directed largely towards wind and solar power, while other more exotic forms were left unnoticed. All of that is starting to change though, with alternative alternative energy finally being looked at in depth. Google has taken the lead in exploring non-conventional energy sources, championing geothermal power and tidal power.
And now another piece of major good news for non-mainstream alternative energy. The world's first wave power plant opened this week, off the coast of Portugal. The new plant cost only $13.1M USD to deploy, but will offer a capacity of around 2.25 MW. This already beats current solar offerings, for example its over twice as efficient as the Oregon Road project which is creating 104 kW for $1.3M USD.
The most promising part about the new plant is that its potential is largely untapped. While solar has seen years of refinement, interest in wave power is just picking up. This should help it be a competitive alternative to nuclear power in the near future, allowing for a variety of options.
The heart of the new plant is Pelamis Wave Energy Converters (PWEC). Designed by Pelamis Wave Power Limited, a Scottish engineering firm, these converters sit three milles off the coast of Agucadoura in north Portugal and provide power 24-7. Each converter has a modest output of 750 kW, and together three compose the 2.25 MW plant.
A second phase of the plant, contingent upon its success, is planned, which will expand the plant with 25 additional reactors, bringing the capacity to 21 MW. This would be enough energy to power 15,000 homes. The project is a joint venture between a Babcock and Brown Ltd., a global specialist asset manager, Energias de Portugal (EDP), Portuguese energy group EFACEC, and Pelamis Wave Power Limited.
The new generators were named after the sea snake Pelamis. They measure 3.5 m in diameter and are 140 m long. They float partiall submerged on the ocean's surface. Babcock and Brown's Anthony Kennaway explains the operation of the PWEC stating, "Effectively what you have is four long sections making up one machine. Between those sections are three small generating motors. The four sections are all joined by hydraulic rams. As the waves run through the machine it pushes the rams in and out. The action of the rams going to-and-fro pushes hydraulic fluid into a high pressure reservoir. That high pressure reservoir then releases the fluid at a steady rate through a generating motor."
Much of the project's costs are not in the generators themselves, but in the undersea cable, which links the generators' output to a substation on shore, which then converts it into usable electricity and puts it on Portugal's grid.
Like solar cells, wave power is reliant on the weather. However, it should be a steadier power source, producing power even at night. Over a year, its expected to average around 20-40 percent of its peak capacity. According to the plant owners, once the 25 additional generators are in place, a savings of 60,000 tons of CO2 yearly will be gained. British scientists say that wide adoption of wave power could save 1-2 billion tons of CO2 yearly.
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See - World's First Wave Power Plant Opens In Europe.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 7:17 AM
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AAP:
Australia can clean up on wave power: Carnegie
29 September 2008
Clean power developer Carnegie Corporation says more than a third of Australia’s base-load power needs could be economically generated by wave technology, according to a report commissioned by the company.
The report, compiled by RPS MetOcean, says that Australia has a potential near-shore wave energy resource of about 171,000 megawatts (MW) – four times the country’s total installed power generation capacity, Carnegie said.
“This report further supports Carnegie’s view that Australia has the world’s best wave energy resource – a resource we hope will be utilised through technologies such as CETO for base-load power generation,” managing director Michael Ottaviano said in a statement.
CETO technology uses submerged units anchored to the sea floor that move with the motion of passing waves, driving the pumps which in turn pressurise seawater that is delivered ashore through a pipeline.
The high-pressure seawater is used to drive hydroelectric turbines and generate base-load electricity.
Carnegie said a “conservative” 10 per cent of Australia’s calculated near-shore wave resource is estimated to be economically extractable.
This means that around 35 per cent of Australia’s current power usage could be met by harnessing wave energy, the company said.
“Carnegie will use the RPS study to further inform commercial CETO site selection, which will be followed by more detailed site-specific modelling to determine the design and construction of any commercial wave energy generation site,” Dr Ottaviano said.
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10:22 AM, September 30, 2008
Sydney Morning Herald:
Oh buoy, wax your board for wave power
September 30, 2008
The market loves a "green" story, regardless of how convenient or inconvenient the truth may be. The latest green tale comes from Perth's Carnegie Corporation, which released details of an "independent report" stating wave power could provide 171,000 megawatts of electricity for Australia — four times our existing power generation.
Carnegie Corp managing director Michael Ottaviano said the report, by London-based RPS MetOcean, found that Victoria has an "estimated near-shore wave energy resource of 18,000MW, almost double the state's total installed power generation capacity".
"Harnessing Victoria's waves could generate 20% of the state's current power needs," Ottaviano added.
The market lapped it up, with Carnegie Corp rising 26%, or 3.5¢, to 17¢, on the news. But it seems Carnegie Corp has a different interpretation to Full Disclosure about what constitutes an independent report. In this case, Carnegie Corp paid RPS MetOcean to do the work. When pressed on how much Carnegie paid RPS, Ottaviano refused to answer. "Of course I can't disclose that," he said. "Like with all our supply contracts, I can't reveal the figures paid."
Supply contract — an interesting choice of words.
Also tucked away in the executive summary of the report is the following tidbit of information: "Wave data was sourced primarily from NOAA WaveWatch III modelling and compared to available measured data for seven sites across southern Australia."
In English, that means the power estimates are based on computer modelling, and the only real data has come from seven buoys floating off Australia's 36,000 km coastline.
That's one every 5140 km.
And how many of those buoys are located in Victoria, where Carnegie hopes 18,000MW of power can be generated? None. Nada. Zip.
The closest two are at Cape Sorell, on the west coast of Tasmania, and Eden in NSW. There's another at Kangaroo Island and four are in WA.
Ottaviano stands by the report. "It has been done by RPS, a respected company, using tried and tested methods backed by facts and actual wave data gathered from 11 sites," he said.
Except it's seven sites, not 11. Indeed, the estimates are largely based on WaveWatch III computer modelling — which British meteorological bodies say "has been found to over-estimate the size of waves".
"Yes, I am aware of that," Ottaviano told Full Disclosure. "But we have been deliberately conservative in our estimates because of that."
Not as conservative as the nation's previous Prime Minister, who rode wave power into the last election. "Wave energy, such as that being developed by Carnegie Corporation in Perth, is a leading innovative renewable energy technology," said John Howard back in October, before pledging $5 million to the company.
10:38 AM, September 30, 2008
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