Luck flows and ebbs for wave power

The winner of a competition to build a wave power plant off Ireland had its hopes dashed by the European Union's refusal to help with funding. The Wavegen unit of Applied Research & Technology Ltd. (ART), Inverness, Scotland, secured a 15-year power purchase contract and was promised an EU infrastructure grant under the Dublin government's competitive Irish renewable energy initiative, AER III. Wavegen's successful design comprised a wave power unit with capacity to generate 2 MW

Oct. 19, 1998

3 min read

David Knott
London
[email protected]

The winner of a competition to build a wave power plant off Ireland had its hopes dashed by the European Union's refusal to help with funding.

The Wavegen unit of Applied Research & Technology Ltd. (ART), Inverness, Scotland, secured a 15-year power purchase contract and was promised an EU infrastructure grant under the Dublin government's competitive Irish renewable energy initiative, AER III.

Wavegen's successful design comprised a wave power unit with capacity to generate 2 MW of electric power, on which was mounted a 1.5-MW wind turbine.

Allan Thomson, Wavegen managing director, explained, "The Irish renewable energy initiative only asked for wave power, but our view was that the addition of wind power would bring unit costs down and maximize resources."

Thomson said Ireland's interest in wave power stems from the fact that the country imports 90% of its fuel yet, with its high winds and seas, has a huge potential resource of renewable energy.

Technology

The project was expected to be the world's first commercial offshore wave power scheme and featured Wavegen's Osprey 2000 wave energy machine.

An earlier version of the Osprey design was installed off the coast of Scotland, but collapsed in a storm. Recently British-Borneo Petroleum Syndicate plc, London, bought into ART with a view to reducing offshore power generation costs through a similar wave power machine (see story, p. 42).

The Osprey design was recommended to the Irish government after an independent technical and commercial analysis of competing bids by the U.K. government's Energy Technology Support Unit, Harwell.

The Irish government's offer of an electricity supply contract was an advantage, said Thomson, but because the project involved building a single device in an area with no infrastructure, costs would be comparatively high.

What's next

The Irish government offered a £1 million ($1.7 million) capital grant for the winning scheme, which was to be provided through the EU.

"We have won the competition but lost the prize," said Thomson. "We are pleased we won, because it shows we're in the lead. But, if we'd known there would be no money from the EU at the beginning, we would have put our efforts into other things.

"To win the prize, we carried out a full retrospective wave analysis, which cost us tens of thousands of pounds. What pulled the plug on this scheme was the loss of a grant that was to have included the costs of grid connection."

In the meantime, ART secured EU funding for a power project based on its Limpet shoreline wave power concept. The company will build a 500 kw Limpet on the Scottish island of Islay for completion next year.

Thomson has not given up hope of building an Osprey 2000 scheme: "We're considering other locations. We are in discussions about other sites at the moment, but all I can say is that they are overseas."