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3. Wave & Tidal
Power
Taking a first hand
look at wave power progress, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks recently
visited Ocean Power Delivery's new production line for the Pelamis wave
device at the Fife Energy Park, Methil, where OPD were assembling Power
Conversion Modules for export to Portugal, in what will be the world’s
first wave farm. The modules were originally fabricated in Stonehaven
by Ross Deeptech. After installation of the electro-hydraulic power
take-off systems the modules went to Lewis to join the other elements
of the Pelamis system fabricated by Camcal, a specialist in large cylindrical
structures. And finally off they go to Portugal for final assembly prior
to commissioning. A great UK export success!
Responding to a Parliamentary Question (15/2/06) on tidal power, Wicks
noted that it could ‘broadly be split into two categories: tidal-current-
this extracts kinetic energy from fast moving tidal currents and tidal
impoundment that generates in a similar way to a conventional dam. The
UK Tidal Energy Programme that ran between 1978-94 at a cost of £20m
estimated the total tidal (impoundment) resource to be approximately
50 TWh/y. The largest and most economically viable scheme, the Severn
Barrage could contribute 17TWh/y or 5% of UK demand (1).
The most recent study undertaken in 2004 (2) estimated the tidal current
resource at approx 16 TWh/y (4% of current UK supply).
(1) Energy Paper
57 HMSO 1989 (2) Binnie, Black & Veatch 2005 Phase II Report ‘UK,
Europe and Global Tidal Stream Resource Assessment
Marine Links
Offshore wind and
other marine renewables were given a boost by recent agreements on how
their connection to the electricity network onshore are to be funded
and operated. Following consultation with Ofgem, the Energy Minister,
Malcolm Wicks, has extended the existing principles of onshore electricity
transmission to offshore.
The DTI says ‘Whilst the majority of the costs of building the
offshore connections will ultimately be met by wind developers, they
will be staggered over several years and will be funded by a regulated
rate of return- still to be determined- which is likely to be lower
than the market rate. Ofgem will ensure that the investments in the
connections are economic and efficient. This is the system that applies
to the connection of onshore generation assets.’
Wicks said: ‘This is an important step for Britain’s offshore
wind energy industry as the measures I am announcing will increase its
viability by spreading grid connection costs over a number of years.
My decision also gives developers vital certainty and ensures consistency
with the onshore arrangements. We are aiming for 10% of our electricity
to come from renewable sources by 2010 and windfarm projects such as
those planned for the Greater Wash, off the North West coast and in
the Thames Estuary can potentially make a significant contribution to
that target. These projects alone have the potential to produce between
5.4 and 7.2 GW, which is enough electricity for more than one in six
UK households. This regulatory framework can also benefit the future
development of wave & tidal marine technologies.’
The DTI says that extending the onshore regulated price control approach
to offshore electricity transmission will help to deliver the Government’s
renewable energy targets and has a number of clear advantages for offshore
wind farm developers and the efficient operation of the transmission
system as a whole: it will ensure consistency with the regulatory arrangements
onshore and it will provide a financial benefit to offshore developers
by spreading the costs they face to connect to the onshore electricity
system through annual transmission charges recovered over a number of
years and means that the responsibility for developing the offshore
transmission network will be shared by the System Operator and the Transmission
Asset Owners. The DTI adds that it will ‘also have additional
environmental benefits, as it will help to ensure a co-ordinated approach
to the development of the offshore network, which will reduce unnecessary
duplication of transmission assets’, and that ‘this was
the option that was favoured by the majority of respondents to the consultation
exercise- including all the offshore developers that responded’.
The ‘Government Response to the Regulation of Offshore Electricity
Transmission Consultation,’ an updated Regulatory Impact Assessment
and the responses to the consultation, are available at www.dti.gov.uk/renewables.
Welsh wave and
tidal plans
The Welsh European
Funding Office is to provide £5m under the EU’s ‘Objective
1’ regional grant system, towards the 7 MW wave energy test project
planned off the coast of Pembrokeshire, near Milford Haven, using the
Danish Wave Dragon design. Subject to environmental impact & other
assessments during the first phase, in 2008-9, developers KP Renewables
and Wave Dragon plan to install another 11 units in deeper water 18
km off the coast, making the total capacity 77MW (see Renew160).
In parallel, the Welsh Assembly has produced an energy plan which calls
for a new look at the Severn Tidal Barrage.
Wave swing
Scottish company AWS Ocean Energy has obtained £2m in equity funding
to develop the Archimedes Wave Swing idea, invented in the Netherlands
and tested in Portugal. See:www.awsocean.com
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