First "Wave Farm" Announced
by TreeHugger 
on 05.23.05
A wave power plant, the first of its kind, is set to go on line off Portugal in 2006. The Norwegian energy company Hydro is a major funder for the project. The power generators will appear as giant orange tubes floating on water off the coast of northern Portugal, will use wave motion to produce electricity by pumping high-pressure fluids to motors. The generators were developed by Ocean Power Delivery, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The first, three-generator phase of the wave farm would produce 2.25 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply 1,500 Portuguese homes. :: Wave Farm [by Justin Thomas]
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Sounds great. Still, what about costs?
And what about animals?
Eduardo,
from the article...
'The Euro 8 million (USD 10 million) project will have an installed capacity of 2.25 MW, and, according to OPD, is expected to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1,500 Portuguese households while displacing more than 6,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional generating plant. '
So, some interesting math gives us $10,000,000 / 1500 = $6666.67 which assuming a payback of 10 years equals $666.67 per year = $55 per month.
Now, that math is a very on the simple side for (at least) two reasons. One, I've not factored in the 'cost of money' and two I've set the payback time to 10 years which is ludicrously low for a powerplant (25 years would be closer). So, it strikes me that the two factors kind of balance each other out and clearly it is both economically and hopefully ecologically sound.
I wonder if wind-powered pumps could be added to the existing wave powered pumps. Of course, it can be done.