Pelamis Launches World's First Commercial Wave Power Plant In Portgual  

New Energy Focus reports that Pelamis has inaugurated a 2.25 MW wave power plant in Portugal - Inauguration for world's first commercial wave farm.

Scottish wave power firm Pelamis is holding an inauguration ceremony today in Portugal for what is being described as the world's first commercial wave power farm. One Pelamis machine is in position 5km off the north Portuguese coast, but three of the "sea snake" machines have been assembled in Portugal with one now being towed out to sea and a further machine currently in port.

Yesterday saw the company's project development engineer revealing to the annual wave and tidal power industry Symposium 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. Mr 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% of its electricity to come from renewables.

Pelamis - named after a surface-swimming sea snake - involves a long snake-like machine that is partially submerged in the sea with three jointed compartments that rise and fall as waves pass along it. The movement of the joints drives three hydraulic rams that generate power. The 2.25MW Portuguese wave farm is being developed for the 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.