Wave energy converter passes test, Aquamarine says
Published Monday, 27th April 2009
Ediburgh-based Aquamarine Power says it’s successfully tested its Oyster® wave energy converter, which has for the first time produced and exported electricity to the grid at the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) near Newcastle.
The company says that, by producing electricity onshore on a full scale test rig, it’s proven that the Oyster® can “deliver electricity on a commercial scale.” A single pumping cylinder delivered more than 170 kilowatts of electricity.
The Oyster® is unique in that it starts generating electricity in almost calm sea conditions and can operate even in the worst of storms, according to Aquamarine.
“I am exceptionally happy that this achievement will allow us to take the next step in its deployment, a ground-breaking development in the UK,” said Martin McAdam, Aquamarine’s chief executive. “These tests prove that we can have a single machine delivering up to a half a megawatt of power and that a farm of these machines can deliver utility scale power in the order of hundreds of megawatts.”
Installation of the full scale machine at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney is scheduled for this summer. Aquamarine already has an agreement with Airtricity, the renewable energy division of Scottish and Southern Energy, to develop sites capable of hosting 1,000 megawatts of marine energy by 2020 suitable for deployment of Oyster®.
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