Year of Pelamis wave power testing hailed success

The first year of testing of a wave energy machine in the sea off Orkney has produced “encouraging” results, according to its owners.

One of the Pelamis machines in action. Picture: Contributed

The Pelamis P2 has experienced around 90% of average annual sea state occurrences since the test programme began last May – including individual nine metre waves.

The combined P2 test programme - which also involves testing by an E.on-owned machine - has now accumulated 7500 grid connected operating hours, and exported 160MWh of electricity to the national grid.

The P2 this week completed its first year of a robust testing programme at the European Marine Energy Centre at Billy Croo in Orkney.

Following its first installation in May 2012, the machine has been undergoing a progressive work-up testing programme, being exposed to increasingly large wave conditions for longer deployment periods.

The proven average output capability of the device, over the annual spectrum of wave conditions at the EMEC site, is now close to 100kW.

Demonstrations of further improvements are anticipated through control optimisation which could double that number as targeted for the next stage of the project.

Innovation

ScottishPower Renewables said the broad range of data from real sea testing was invaluable for the on-going development of the technology, allowing focused design and innovation for future enhancements of the Pelamis machine.

These enhancements, they say, are vital to ensure that the costs of generating electricity from wave power continue to fall, in order to become cost competitive with other sources of offshore renewable energy.

Alan Mortimer, Head of Innovation at ScottishPower Renewables, said: “The past year at EMEC has been an invaluable learning experience for SPR, E.ON and Pelamis.

“The collaboration has worked well and all parties have benefited from sharing of information, risks and innovation.

“The output of the device is steadily increasing as experience is gained and as the controller is fine-tuned for maximum energy extraction.

“We anticipate further significant improvements over the next 12 months, with the remainder of the test plan focused on optimising the power produced in the full range of sea-states in order to progress the technology towards commercially-viable status.”

Progress

Derrik Robb, Operations Director at Pelamis Wave Power, said: “The results achieved during this testing programme are testament to how far we have progressed, working collaboratively with our customers.

“The wealth of knowledge and data collected to date has been instrumental in reinforcing our technical understanding of the Pelamis and its control systems and we continue to apply key learning points from one machine to the other, thus reducing time spent addressing first-of-type issues.”

Pelamis Wave Power was established in 1998. Its machines absorb the energy of ocean waves and convert it into electricity.

Following over 15 years of engineering, manufacturing and operational experience, Pelamis launched its ’second generation’ Pelamis machine, the ‘P2’, in spring 2010.

Two P2 machines are now being tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, for E.ON and ScottishPower Renewables.