Limpet, the world’s first commercial wave power station, fed
electricity into the national grid on November 20. The new 500 kilowatt
Oscillating Water Column (OWC) plant began generating on the island
of Islay and is selling its output to the major Public Electricity
Suppliers in Scotland.
It has been built by a team from Queen’s University, Belfast
who established a small 75kW OWC device on Islay in 1990. That was
primarily intended for experience and demonstration and it often needed
to buy more electricity for its own instruments and lighting than
it generated. The new station is now supplying and selling its electricity,
via the gird, under a contract provided by the third round of the
Scottish Renewable Order (SRO), which is offering contract prices
of between 5.95-7p/kWh to three wave projects. Limpet is the first
to get going. The others two, the Pelmis ‘snake’ device
and the Swedish floating Tapchan type device, are move novel designs
(see Renew 128).
The Limpet team was backed financially and technically by Wavegen
of Inverness, the company which launched the off-shore floating OSPREY
device at Dounreay five years ago. Sadly, that sank, in an unseasonal
storm. But Limpet is a much more conventional on-shore design, and
it works.
They also had backing from the European Union and Swiss industrialist,
Stephan Schmidheiny. David Ross adds ‘Limpet
received nothing from the UK government. The official British policy,
as laid down by the DTI, is that wave power is for "the longer
term (after 2010)" and then only "if pursued" by a
research and development programme. Wavegen was awarded a power purchase
contract under the SRO but this is not State aid; it goes on everyone’s
electricity bill and it is the customer who pays.’
LIMPET, the ‘Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer’,
consists of a hollow upturned canister mounted in a specially redesigned
gully to improve its wave intake. As the waves rise and fall inside
it, air is pushed in and out, driving a two way Wells turbine.
In a parallel announcement, The Commission for Wave Power in Scotland
(see Renew 123), published a 5-Point Action Plan to enable Scotland
to capitalise on its world lead in wave power expertise and technology.
The plan includes market support measures for wave power, steps to
assist oil and gas firms deploy their expertise into wave power, a
programme of wave power pilot plants, a streamlined planning procedure
for wave power and action to tackle the lack of adequate and affordable
points where wave devices can connect to the national grid.
Contact: Mike Davies: mike@scottishpolicynet.org.uk
