The IHT reports that the Pelamis ocean power project in Portugal has been suspended due to technical problems and financial problems caused by the demise of Babcock & Brown - A setback for wave power technology.

Projects for wind and wave energy beset by technical snags and dwindling investment

In July, a Pelamis wave power generator, an articulated steel machine like a giant semi-submerged sausage, was towed into the deep Atlantic, off the coast of Aguçadoura in northern Portugal, and attached to a floating mooring.

By September, two more Pelamis units, each capable of generating 750 kilowatts of electricity, had joined the first, about three miles, or five kilometers, off shore, and the Portuguese power utility Energias de Portugal was able to announce proudly that "the world's first commercial wave power project," was transmitting electricity to the national grid.

Costing about €9 million, or $11.5 million, the three machines were the first phase of a plan intended ultimately to be expanded to 28 units, with a total generating capacity of 21 megawatts — enough to power more than 15,000 homes and save more than 60,000 tons a year of carbon dioxide from being spewed into the skies by conventional power plants.

In mid-November all three were disconnected and towed back to land, where they now lie in Leixões harbor, near the city of Porto, with no date set for their return to operation.

So what went wrong?

First, there was a buoyancy problem, said Max Carcas, a spokesman for Pelamis Wave Power, the British company that designed and built the units and retained a 23 percent stake in the project. According to a report on ocean energy systems published by the International Energy Agency, foam-filled buoyancy tanks for the mooring installation leaked and needed to be replaced, delaying startup.

The buoyancy problem was resolved, Mr. Carcas said during a telephone interview this month, but other technical issues emerged, as could be expected in a prototype project. "Like all things new, you have niggles to work through, and we continue to do that."

Then, the financial crisis kicked in.

The Aguçadoura wave farm was announced in September as a joint venture between Pelamis and a group of three promoters including EDP, the Portuguese electrical engineering company Efacec, and the asset manager Babcock & Brown, an Australia-based specialist in power and other infrastructure investments.

But, by November, as the global credit crunch and falling share markets took a deepening toll of highly leveraged investors, Babcock & Brown announced a major program of asset sales to pay down its debt: and the Portuguese partners pulled back from the venture.

"Babcock & Brown are in process of winding down and we're looking at offers for all our assets," Anthony Kennaway, a Babcock & Brown spokesman, said from London. "Pelamis is part of that. All our assets are for sale. We are not putting any more money into the project."

Against that background, Mr. Carcas, of Pelamis, said that there was no timetable for returning the generators to sea.

The Green Wombat has a report on a new floating offshore wind power plant planned for Portugal - Portugal floats offshore wind farm plan.

Portugal has become a prime spot for wave energy farms, given the coastal conditions and the government’s support for renewable energy projects. Now Portuguese energy powerhouse Energias de Portugal has signed an agreement with Seattle’s Principle Power for a deep-water floating wind farm.

It’s the second floating wind farm for Principle Power, which last October inked a contract to construct a 150-megawatt turbine power plant off the Oregon coast. The Oregon plan calls for 30 floating platforms that will each sport a five-megawatt wind turbine - which is about twice the size of the biggest land-based turbines in commercial operation. (General Electric (GE) makes a 3.6-megawatt turbine designed for offshore and Clipper Windpower is developing a ten-megawatt prototype.)

Details of the deal with Portugal’s EDP, however, are next to non-existent. Principle Power president Jon Bonanno told Green Wombat that the size of the Portuguese wind farm, the type of turbine it will use, its cost and build date are confidential. “What I can say is that the phased build out will result in a utility scale project, within a reasonable time frame for a plant of its size and nature,” Bonanno wrote in an e-mail.

Energy Matters has a post on a new solar PV farm in Portugal - Portugal's Largest Solar Farm Opens.

Portugal's Acciona Energy recently opened the country's largest solar power farm, executing the construction of the project in a record time of 13 months. The solar farm covers an area of 250 hectares in the municipality of Moura (Alentejo region), near the border with Spain.

The AUD$571 million 48 MW facility will provide power to over 30,000 Portugese households; producing 93 million kWh of electricity annually and avoiding over 89,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions compared to a similar output via coal fired power generation.

The infrastructure consists of 2520 solar tracker devices measuring 13 meters long and 10.8 meters high. The solar trackers, set at a 45 degree angle, are able to rotate 240 degrees throughout the day in order to gain the maximum solar exposure.

Each of the tracking units contains either 104, 170 or 180 watt polycrystalline solar panels. In total, over 262,000 solar panels have been utilised in the installation.

The Amareleja solar farm is a big step up from Portugal's last solar power facility, the 11 megawatt Serpa plant which opened in 2007, which consists of 52,000 solar panels.

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.