Hydro & Marine News

Wednesday 12 August 2009

The 194-tonne Oyster device being lowered onto its seabed subframe on Monday

A wave device billed as the "UK's first nearshore wave energy converter" has been installed in the sea for testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.

The 500KW Oyster wave power converter, developed by Aquamarine Power, was put into the water at EMEC's Billia Croo wave testing site on Monday, the company announced today (August 12). The 194 tonne full scale device was lowered onto its seabed subframe and bolted in place.

Oyster is designed to capture the energy found in nearshore waves up to depths of 10 to 12 metres. A commercial farm of just 20 devices (10MW) is expected to provide renewable energy to a town of 6,500 homes.

Aquamarine Power claimed that the benefit of Oyster was its simplicity, with minimal moving parts and all electrical components onshore, making it robust enough to withstand the rigours of Scotland's harsh seas.

The company said that the next step would be to connect the Oyster to sub-sea pipelines which would deliver high-pressure fresh water to an onshore turbine, ahead of connection to the grid later this year.

Grid connected sea trials of the device, which are expected to begin at the end of the year once the ongoing installation works are finished, are likely to continue for two years, a spokeswoman for Aquamarine told New Energy Focus.

"Giant leap"

Martin McAdam, chief executive of Aquamarine Power, said: "Getting Oyster into the water and connected to the seabed was always going to be the most difficult step. No one has deployed a near-shore wave device before so we had to plan every detail of the operation."

"We have a fantastic and experienced offshore team at Aquamarine Power but we could not have done this on our own, in total we have about 15 different companies working on this project, together with our main contractor Fugro Seacore," he added.

Mr McAdam described the step as a "giant leap for the company and the marine industry in general", adding that he expected to face further challenges with the Oyster tests.

Aquamarine is now working on connecting the device to the grid ahead of offshore testing, which is set to begin later this year.

The company's chief executive added: "Generating electricity, however, will be the ultimate test, and we are confident we will deliver power to the national grid by the end of the year."