The Pelamis project development engineer revealed to the annual wave and tidal power industry symposium in Cardiff, that the Portguese project had run into some delay because of faulty buoyancy units on the cables transferring power ashore. But, Andrew Scott said the company is now back on track attempting to get three of the 750kW P-1A machines up and running.

Scott said: "In the next few weeks we are trying to get all three machines online simultaneously, and we will be gradually pushing the envelopes of the machines."

Phase two of the project will see Pelamis Wave Power developing a 20MW array of its machines in Portugal, where to reach its European targets to generate 31% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 it will need 60% electricity to come from renewables.     (Courtesy:http://newenergyfocus.com)

Pelamis involves a long snake-like machine,  partially submerged in sea, with three jointed compartments that rise and fall as waves pass along it.  The joint movements drives three hydraulic rams to generate power.

The 2.25MW Portuguese wave farm being developed for power company Enersis and Babcock & Brown, connected up to a substation at Aguçadoura. The machines were fabricated on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and will be controlled from the Pelamis headquarters at Leith, Edinburgh. "We've established a communication central link to Leith, where we can control and view the project from our Leith offices. Everything has been going very well," said Scott.

Software array control works on utility compatibility
The Portuguese installation is supported through a feed-in tariff of around €0.23/kWh (about 18p/kWh of power). The company, with a letter of intent for a 20MW wave farm from Enersis, is now working on computer software for controlling arrays of its machines to be compatible with existing utility companies' software.

Pelamis tested its system at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in the Orkney Isles from 2006 until last year. It started generating power in Portugal two months ago, but has run into delay because buoys used to float the power cables were faulty.

The company has developed a deployment system that can use small ships to tow out the Pelamis machines. Scott said large vessels it first looked at cost £160,000/day, but smaller vessels costs were slashed this to around £2,000/day.

The system is very weather dependent. Pelamis does not carry out work on the machines on-site. A remote installation system, first tested at EMEC in 2007, means machines can be disconnected quickly to be towed back to harbour. The three machines were ready for deployment in Portugal a year ago, before the project ran into delay because of the faulty buoyancy units.

In the UK, Pelamis is due to install four of its machines 2km off the west coast of the Orkney Islands, with consent for the 3MW project awarded by the Scottish Government in 2008. The government is providing £4m funding for the project, being run with ScottishPower. Hopes of developing up to 5MW of capacity in the WaveHub project off the north coast of Cornwall are dependent on the Wavehub development going ahead.

The OpenHydro approach
As newer energy forms are tested,  older industries like shipbuilding get new business. A specially built barge is steering the next stage in development of tidal energy technology under test at EMEC, the Orkney-based EMEC.

(Eday Sound: http://www.ayres-rock-sanday-orkney.co.uk/)

The Irish company OpenHydro has successfully used its unique vessel built in Holland to mount a tidal turbine on the seabed off Eday. Orkney Towage's tug Harald towed the specially built OpenHydro Installer, a twin-hulled barge complete with turbine, to the site at Eday. Until now, OpenHydro have used a research platform to put prototype turbines through their paces at EMEC's tidal energy test site at the Fall of Warness, off Eday.

Earlier this year, one of the Open-Centre turbines fed electricity generated at sea into the National Grid – a key moment in the test programme and a first for the UK. In future, OpenHydro's vision is to have these machines deployed in farms under the world's oceans. So it has developed a system for placing the turbines directly on to the seabed.

Purpose built barge developed
"When we realised the type of vessel we needed wasn't available in the marine market place, we decided to build our own," said OpenHydro CEO James Ives. The barge has been constructed at a shipyard in Holland and is thought to be the first vessel of its kind ever built. It is fitted with three powerful winches, which are used to lower turbines fitted with individual support rigs on to the seabed – where the technology converts energy from tidal currents into electricity.

"We've gained invaluable experience testing our prototype turbines at EMEC," added Ives. "The barge was conceived as a result of that experience and has been used to deploy a turbine for the first time at EMEC's tidal test site. So where better than Kirkwall as its port of registry?"

EMEC MD Neil Kermode said: "This is believed to be the world's first vessel to be built specially for deploying tidal turbines. It represents an important step forward on the journey towards harnessing the power of tidal currents as a significant and sustainable source of electricity.

"We are delighted that it has been used for the first time in Orkney and that OpenHydro have chosen Kirkwall as the vessel's home port. Using Orkney Towage's tugs also worked well and once again showed the advantages of using local vessels and experience in these challenging conditions."

Sources:http://newenergyfocus.com/
www.hi-energy.org.uk/pioneeringprojects-emec.html