Wave Power

The University of Edinburgh is probably the world's leading research institution for wave power, and on Tuesday we heard a really informative presentation on the current state of wave power units from a scientist who has been charged by the EU with setting up protocols to compare emerging wave power technologies. The amount of energy in ocean waves is absolutely enormous (particularly off the UK), and if it could be successfully harnessed, it could be a powerful renewable energy source. Unlike wind turbines, which are a pretty developed technology and all look the same, there are dozens of radically different types of wave energy devices. Our presenter expected some consolidation down to 5 types or so, but because wave conditions differ much more than wind (which is pretty much the same everywhere), he still expects some variation in wave eventually.

The most well known type of wave device may be the Pelamis. It's essentially a snake-like object that bobs up and down and harnesses energy. Check out the website here. It was originally designed by a Edinburgh grad student, and is now operational at commercial scale off the coast of Portugal (thanks in part to a pretty generous feed-in-tariff of 23 euro-cents per kilowatt-hour).

Here are an interesting couple of videos that show the gradual research and development process from model to pool to ocean (our presenter decried the venture capitalists who are currently pushing people to have full-commercial scale wave energy devices in a year or two...skipping this gradual R&D process.)




Models



Small Scale

(skipped lots of slightly bigger scales)



Full sea-trials