The Tide’s Rising For Wave Power: Power Buoys Installed Off the Spanish Coast
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 09.23.08
The renewable energy potential of the ocean is slowly being tapped. Earlier in the summer the world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine began feeding power to the grid. New York City’s Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project is up and running, after a few set-backs. Last week the US Department of Energy announced that it will be $7.3 million to further cleantech water power research.
Now another wave power technology, Ocean Power Technologies’ PB 40 Power Buoy, has been deployed in what will be a 1.39 MW wave power project off the coast of Spain. Yeah, that’s really not that much power in the grand scheme of things, but the technology is pretty interesting:
Buoy Converts Wave Motion Into Electricity
While most tidal power uses a underwater mounted turbine of some sort the Power Buoy relies instead on the rising and falling of the waves to generate power. Power is transmitted to the shore via underwater cable. OPT says that the a 10 MW power station using this technology would occupy 12.5 hectares of ocean. Theoretically the technology is scalable to 100 MW power stations, according to OPT’s website.
OPT touts an additional benefit of the PB 40 Power Buoy: Because of its size (7 meters in diameter and 20 meters tall, most of which is below the water) it is visually unobtrusive, which is a good thing considering that power station using the technology are designed to be located 1-3 miles offshore.
More on the Spanish Project
OPT’s Power Buoy project in Spain is being done in partnership with renewables giant Iberdrola and is located 4.8 kilometers off the coast of Santoña. When completed it will consists of 10 buoys, generating 1.39 MW of power, enough the company says to power 2500 homes.
:: Ocean Power Technologies Inc
images: OPT
Wave Power
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I'm glad to see wave and tidal power receiving some attention. They don't have the potential global capacity that wind, solar, and geothermal do, but it is still VERY significant. And since ALL these renewable resources are underutilized today, and MOST of them dwarf current total human power consumption, it is definitely a good thing we're starting to use them all.
In May this year, an Irish company OpenHydro became the first company to generate and supply tidal electricity to the UK national grid. OpenHydro's 250kW power unit, known as an 'open-centre turbine' is installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off Orkney, Scotland.
http://www.openhydro.com/home.html
Dear Treehugger,
Potugal has opened today the first commercial wave energy farm off the coast of Povoa de Varzim.
Can you help spread this information?
Here is link from another publication (not updated):
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/37116
wiki article with reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power#_note-13
And here is the news from a Portuguese Newspaper:
http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/noticia.aspx?id=1343740
...and a an educational institution:
http://www2.inescporto.pt/ip-en/news-events/the-press-us/povoa-gains-wave-energy/
Thanks!