| Islay LIMPET | |
|---|---|
 The LIMPET installation in July 2009 | |
 | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Location | Islay |
| Coordinates | 55°41′25.56″N6°31′20.12″W / 55.6904333°N 6.5222556°W |
| Status | Decommissioned |
| Commission date | 2000 |
| Decommission date | 2012 |
| Wave power station | |
| Type | Oscillating water column |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 250 kW [1] |
Islay LIMPET was the world's first commercial wave power device and was connected to the United Kingdom's National Grid.
Islay LIMPET (Land Installed Marine Power Energy Transmitter) was developed and operated by Wavegen in cooperation with Queen's University Belfast. Following the construction of a 75 kW prototype in 1991, a 500 kW unit was built in 2000 at Claddach Farm on the Rhinns of Islay [2] on the Scottish island of Islay. The capacity was later downgraded to 250 kW. [1] [3]
Islay LIMPET is a shoreline device using an Oscillating Water Column to drive air in and out of a pressure chamber through a Wells turbine. [1] [4] [5] The chamber of the LIMPET is an inclined concrete tube with its opening below the water level. External wave action causes the water level in the chamber to oscillate. This variation in water level alternately compresses and decompresses trapped air above, which causes air to flow backwards and forwards through a pair of contra-rotating turbines.
The plant has been decommissioned, and as of 2018 all installations except the concrete construction making up the wave chamber have been removed.
Based on this design, a 16-turbine plant was built in the Bay of Biscay in Spain, the Mutriku Breakwater Wave Plant, which was fully operational and handed over to the company in 2011. [6]
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Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is a renewable energy technology that harnesses the temperature difference between the warm surface waters of the ocean and the cold depths to produce electricity. It is a unique form of clean energy generation that has the potential to provide a consistent and sustainable source of power. Although it has challenges to overcome, OTEC has the potential to provide a consistent and sustainable source of clean energy, particularly in tropical regions with access to deep ocean water.
Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods.
Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power is a wave energy converter (WEC).
Wave Dragon is a floating slack-moored energy converter of the overtopping type, developed by the Danish company Wave Dragon Aps. Wave Dragon is a joint EU research project, including partners from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, and the UK. It was the world's first offshore wave energy converter.
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.
The Wells turbine is a low-pressure air turbine that rotates continuously in one direction independent of the direction of the air flow. Its blades feature a symmetrical airfoil with its plane of symmetry in the plane of rotation and perpendicular to the air stream.
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.
The Aviemore Dam is a dam on the Waitaki River in New Zealand. The dam is a composite dam, with an embankment section, and a concrete section. Built in the 1960s it impounds Lake Aviemore.
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.
SeWave is a wave farm project in Nípanin, Faroe Islands. The project is developed by the joint venture of the Scottish wave energy developer Wavegen and the Faroe's power company SEV.
The Oyster is a hydro-electric wave energy device that uses the motion of ocean waves to generate electricity. It is 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.
Marine energy or marine power refers to the energy carried by ocean waves, tides, salinity, and ocean temperature differences. The movement of water in the world's oceans creates a vast store of kinetic energy, or energy in motion. Some of this energy can be harnessed to generate electricity to power homes, transport and industries.
Trevor Whittaker FREng is Professor of coastal engineering at Queen's University, Belfast having been awarded a personal chair in 1993. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002. He is specialist adviser to the board of Aquamarine Power, a company formed to commercially develop the Oyster wave energy converter.
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 run of 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 Mutriku Breakwater Wave Plant is a wave power plant constructed by Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE), the Basque energy agency, in the bay of Mutriku in the Bay of Biscay. It is the world's first breakwater wave power plant with a multiple turbine arrangement. The plant has a capacity of 296 kW from 16 turbo generator sets. It was inaugurated on July 8, 2011.
Events from the year 2000 in Scotland.
Oscillating water columns (OWCs) are a type of wave energy converter that harness energy from the oscillation of the seawater inside a chamber or hollow caused by the action of waves. OWCs have shown promise as a renewable energy source with low environmental impact. Because of this, multiple companies have been working to design increasingly efficient OWC models. OWC are devices with a semi-submerged chamber or hollow open to the sea below, keeping a trapped air pocket above a water column. Waves force the column to act like a piston, moving up and down, forcing the air out of the chamber and back into it. This continuous movement forces a bidirectional stream of high-velocity air, which is channeled through a power take-off (PTO). The PTO system converts the airflow into energy. In models that convert airflow to electricity, the PTO system consists of a bidirectional turbine. This means that the turbine always spins the same direction regardless of the direction of airflow, allowing for energy to be continuously generated. Both the collecting chamber and PTO systems will be explained further under "Basic OWC Components."
India has a long coastline of 7517 km marked along by numerous estuaries and gulfs which makes it attractive for the development of marine energy projects. India's wave power potential is around 40-60GW. However, compared to the developments in other renewable energy technologies, ocean energy technologies like wave and tidal are in their nascent stages of development in India.
