ORKNEY & THE PENTLAND FIRTH SPOTLIGHT ON TESTING HIGHLIGHTS
The P2 machines have now experienced around 90% of sea state occurrences for an average year, including significant wave heights of up to 5mHs, and individual waves of over 9m. This broad range of data from real sea testing is invaluable for the on-going development of the technology, allowing focused design and innovation for future enhancements of the Pelamis machine. These enhancements are vital to ensure that the costs of generating electricity from wave power continue to fall, in order to become cost competitive with other sources of offshore renewable energy.
The combined P2 test programme has now accumulated over 8500 grid connected operating hours, and exported almost 190MWh of electricity to the national grid. These are encouraging figures for this stage of the testing programme and it is anticipated that generated powers will continue to rise as the programme develops. These P2 operating hours bring the cumulative total for Pelamis technology up to well over 10,000 grid connected operating hours, demonstrating both the extensive experience of the Pelamis team and the wealth of learning delivered by the P2 testing programme specifically.
OUTCOMES PROVEN CAPABILITY
The proven average output capability of the device, over the annual spectrum of wave conditions at the EMEC site, is now close to 100kW. Demonstrations of further improvements are anticipated through control optimisation which could double that number as targeted for the next stage of the project.
‘PLUG & PLAY’ SYSTEM
Pelamis’ patented ‘plug & play’ system for the safe and rapid installation and removal of the machines in water has proved its strength and allowed for the towing and installation to be routinely conducted in wave heights of up to 2.5 metres as well as in darkness. This unique feature of the Pelamis P2 machine greatly expands the opportunities for operations and safe intervention, as it allows for flexible, round- the-clock operations, which is particularly important in the waters to the north of Scotland and over the winter months.
The learnings from this P2 demonstration programme will inform larger projects under development in Scottish waters, as well as the technical optimisation of Pelamis technology in order to enhance performance and decrease the cost of energy from commercial scale wave power.
Pelamis Wave Power
www.wavetidalenergynetwork.co.uk
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