A collaborative project bringing together three of Europe’s leading utilities and wave energy technologies provided by Aquamarine Power and Pelamis has been selected by the UK Government for a major European funding bid.
The Pentland Orkney Wave Energy Resource (POWER) project is the only wave energy bid being put forward by the UK Government to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for consideration in the first round of the EU’s New Entrant Reserve (NER300) scheme – a fund worth around Eur4.5 billion to support carbon capture and storage (CCS) and innovative renewable projects across the European Union.
The POWER project aims to deliver the world’s first large-scale grid-connected demonstration of a wave energy farm with a total generation capacity of 28 MW.
If successful, the project will comprise ten near shore Aquamarine Power Oyster 3 devices and 24 offshore Pelamis machines within the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters leasing area, operating in multi-device array configurations. Both of these technologies are leaders in their field, having been successfully demonstrated at small scale. The project will have a single point of connection to the onshore grid.
The POWER project and bid, which was structured and coordinated by the Scottish European Green Energy Centre (SEGEC), is a collaboration by ScottishPower Renewables, E.ON Climate & Renewables and Brough Head Wave Farm – a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Aquamarine Power.
Data and learning captured during the development and operation of the project will be used directly to accelerate the commercialisation of wave energy technology and the development of the industry in Europe.
By providing a final pre-commercial large-scale demonstration of Aquamarine Power near shore Oyster 3 devices and offshore Pelamis machines within the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters development area, the POWER project would be a significant milestone in the development of the wave energy sector in Europe and worldwide.