The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter was a technology that used the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The machine was made up of connected sections which flex and bend as waves pass; it is this motion which is used to generate electricity.
The production of renewable energy in Scotland is a topic that came to the fore in technical, economic, and political terms during the opening years of the 21st century. The natural resource base for renewable energy is high by European, and even global standards, with the most important potential sources being wind, wave, and tide. Renewables generate almost all of Scotland's electricity, mostly from the country's wind power.
Greater Gabbard is a 504 MW wind farm, built on sandbanks 23 kilometres (14 mi) off the coast of Suffolk in England at a cost of £1.5 billion. It was completed on 7 September 2012 with all of the Siemens SWT3.6–107 turbines connected. Developed as a joint venture between Airtricity and Fluor, it is now jointly owned by SSE Renewables and Innogy.
Renewable energy in the United Kingdom contributes to production for electricity, heat, and transport.
The Aguçadoura Wave Farm was a wave farm located 5 km (3 mi) offshore near Póvoa de Varzim north of Porto in Portugal. The farm was designed to use three Pelamis Wave Energy Converters to convert the motion of the ocean surface waves into electricity, totalling to 2.25 MW in total installed capacity. The farm was officially opened on 23 September 2008, by the Portuguese Minister of Economy. The wave farm was shut down two months after the official opening in November 2008.
The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is a UKAS accredited test and research center focused on wave and tidal power development, based in the Orkney Islands, UK. The centre provides developers with the opportunity to test full-scale grid-connected prototype devices in wave and tidal conditions.
Wavegen Limited was a wave energy company based in Inverness, Scotland. It was founded in 1990 by Allan Thomson. It was sold to Voith Hydro in 2005, and they closed the company in 2013.
Pelamis Wave Power designed and manufactured the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter – a technology that uses the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The company was established in 1998 and had offices and fabrication facilities in Leith Docks, Edinburgh, Scotland. It went into administration in November 2014.
Stephen Hugh Salter, was a South African-born Scottish academic who was Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at the University of Edinburgh and inventor of the eponymous Salter's duck wave energy device. Salter was also a proponent of geoengineering and was responsible for creating the concept of the mechanical enhancement of clouds to achieve cloud reflectivity enhancement.
The Oyster was a hydro-electric wave energy device that used the motion of ocean waves to generate electricity. It was made up of a Power Connector Frame (PCF), which is bolted to the seabed, and a Power Capture Unit (PCU). The PCU is a hinged buoyant flap that moves back and forth with movement of the waves. The movement of the flap drives two hydraulic pistons that feed high-pressured water to an onshore hydro-electric turbine, which drives a generator to make electricity. Oyster was stationed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) at its Billia Croo site in Orkney, Scotland until the company ceased trading in 2015.
A tidal stream generator, often referred to as a tidal energy converter (TEC), is a machine that extracts energy from moving masses of water, in particular tides, although the term is often used in reference to machines designed to extract energy from the run of a river or tidal estuarine sites. Certain types of these machines function very much like underwater wind turbines and are thus often referred to as tidal turbines. They were first conceived in the 1970s during the oil crisis.
The Aegir wave farm was a planned wave farm off the south west of Shetland. The project was developed by Aegir Wave Power, a 2009 formed joint venture of Vattenfall and the wave power technology developer Pelamis Wave Power. The wave farm would have had capacity from 10 MW potentially up to 100 MW. Following the collapse of Pelamis in November 2014, the project was cancelled by Vattenfall in February 2015.
The Saltire Prize, named after the flag of Scotland, was a national award for advances in the commercial development of marine energy.
Wave Energy Scotland (WES) is a technology development body set up by the Scottish Government to facilitate the development of wave energy in Scotland. It was set up in 2015 and is a subsidiary of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) based in Inverness. WES manages several projects resulting from its pre-commercial procurement funding calls.
Orbital Marine Power is a Scottish renewable energy company focused on the development and global deployment of its pioneering floating turbine technology. The O2 is Orbital's first commercial turbine and represents the culmination of more than 15 years of world leading product development in the UK. The 74 m long turbine is expected to operate in the waters off Orkney for the next 15–20 years with the capacity to meet the annual electricity demand of around 2,000 UK homes with clean, predictable power from the fast-flowing waters while offsetting approximately 2,200 tonnes of CO2 production per year. In a further ground-breaking element of the project, the O2 will provide power to the European Marine Energy Centre's onshore electrolyser to generate green hydrogen that will be used to demonstrate decarbonisation of wider energy requirements.
Mocean EnergyLtd. is a wave energy technology developer, based in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. They are developing a hinged-raft attenuator wave energy converter (WEC) at various scales for different markets.
Many tidal stream generators have been developed over the years to harness the power of tidal currents flowing around coastlines. These are also called tidal stream turbines (TST), tidal energy converters (TEC), or marine hydro-kinetic (MHK) generation. These turbines operate on a similar principle to wind turbines, but are designed to work in a fluid approximately 800 times more dense than air which is moving at a slower velocity. Note that tidal barrages or lagoons operate on a different principle, generating power by impounding the rising and falling tide.
CorPower Ocean AB is a wave energy device developer, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. They also have offices in Oslo, Viana do Castelo, and Stromness. The office in Viana do Castelo is an R&D centre that also serves as the manufacturing and service centre for the wave energy converters (WEC).
