Germany's First Wave Power Plant Planned
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 04. 2.06
Germany's first wave power generation plant will be installed by Energie Baden-Württemberg Ag (EnBW) in cooperation with Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation GmbH & Co. EnBW sees potential for wave power on the North Sea coast. The German pilot plant will rely on the only technology producing wave power in practice today.
The Limpet power plant installed by Wavegen (a UK based subsidiary of Voith Siemens) currently feeds a nameplate 500 kW into the network. The technology uses the "Oscillating Water Column" (OWC) principle to convert wave energy into compressed air which drives turbines. You can learn more about the technology on Wavegen's information for schools page.
The plans for a German pilot plant target a 250kW capacity, enough to power about 120 households. A small start, but nonetheless a step towards proving the technology for more ambitious projects. Advantages of the Wavegen power plant include its low profile so that visual disturbances from coastal energy projects are minimized. EnBW envision implementing energy projects in cooperation with coastal conservation projects or port construction, which should further minimize the loss of natural beauty on the coastline while optimizing the energy creation potential.
via solarserver (German)
See an alternate implementation of wave power generation installed in Port Kembla in Australia; an "annual energy output of at least 500MWh". More at http://www.energetech.com.au/