Pelamis ‘sea snake’ advances bring down wave power costs

New control systems for a wave energy device have doubled the amount of power captured, bringing the technology a step closer to commercial use.

The next generation of Pelamis Wave Power’s “sea snake” apparatus showed the better performance in a tank simulation of “small and medium seas”.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), which funds the testing as part of a £1.4 million project, said the results showed “huge potential reduction” in the cost of wave power.

Simon Cheeseman, ETI marine programme manager, said: “Seeing such encouraging increases in power capture within these test results is exactly the kind of technology development that we had hoped to see. We are working with Pelamis to accelerate the wave power technology development that the industry requires in order to reach that next step towards commercialisation. The project is designed to help improve technology performance and reduce the cost of wave energy.”

The “P2e” model was exposed to 50 hours of rough sea conditions, with waves up to 23 metres high. The conditions were based on measurements from a South Shetland site where a wave farm is under joint development by Pelamis and Vattenfall.

Ross Henderson, technology director at Pelamis Wave Power, said: “We’ve learned so much from the P2 machines being demonstrated in Orkney. Alongside our intensive R&D programme, this is allowing us to make big advances.

“The new P2e design must provide a return for the first commercial project investors and this means more power throughout the year but without more cost. We have found that the fundamentals have been proved right with the Pelamis so far, so we’re taking the P2 technology platform and enhancing it into a much more powerful, reliable, and economic machine. Continuing in this way, we will steadily make wave energy cost competitive with other sources in the years to come.”