Due to the United Kingdom’s location in the northern temperate zone, the waves which reach the nation’s shores are predictable.  The winds far out at sea that create these waves are consistent and therefore easily measured. Available power that can be generated from the water’s renewable energy is anticipated from these measurements, and prime locations for wave farms are chosen from these findings.  Thanks to the steady nature of the prevailing winds off the United Kingdom’s north shore, the resulting waves’ energy potential can be anticipated five days in advance.

Pondering water power as an alternative energy source is nothing new in the United Kingdom.  The oil crisis of the 1970s prompted many researchers to turn to the possibilities of renewable energy.  At the University of Edinburgh, Stephen Salter invented a wave energy converter nicknamed Salter’s Duck.  This device was shaped like a teardrop and designed to bob on the ocean’s waves.  The bobbing motion would swing a pendulum located inside the floating “duck”, producing electricity.  This electricity would be transferred to lines hanging from the floating device to dedicated collection points connected to the grid.  Reportedly, the device could capture wave power with 90% efficiency.  Unfortunately, falling oil prices and a miscalculation of the production cost doomed Salter’s Duck.  It was never tested in the ocean.

Currently, a project is underway in the United Kingdom known as the Wave Hub.  Its intention is to demonstrate the methods by which wave power can be collected and transformed into electricity.  As part of the Wave Hub, a variety of wave energy converters will be used to demonstrate the operation of wave power’s conversion to electricity.  The devices will be tested in other areas, and upon completion of testing, be connected to the grid at locations agreed upon by the government.  Over the course of several years, electricity production will be studied in order to determine the most efficient water energy converters.  Not only does this allow researchers to develop effective methods by which to harness wave power, but the resulting electricity produced by the research is fed to the grid.

The island upon which the United Kingdom resides is an ideal place to harness and study the renewable energy found in wave power. There is wide range of Wave and Tidal Power Energy Manufacturers in the United Kingdom.

Plus, suppliers and consultants are located all over, so get started in making the most of renewable resources now!

The Original Post is Located Here: Catching A Wave In The United Kingdom

But now, advances in technology are changing that situation. Commercially viable prototypes and active production models operating in wave farms are currently producing electricity successfully. The World Energy Council has described wave energy as a concentrated form of solar energy. With three quarters of the earth covered in water, wave power is an inexhaustible source of clean energy.

Wave power- a brief history

Wave Power has been used as early in human history as 1100 AD in Egypt and, what is now, France and Russia. Wave power during this period was used to mill grain.

One of the earliest known patents was registered to a Frenchman named Girard in Paris and was dated 1799. Interest waned, as it did for wind, during the Industrial Age when fossil fuel became cheap, easy to find and more efficient to use.

In 1909, the then California Wave Power Company created electricity that was used to provide electricity to the wharves in California.

Yoshio Masuda, in 1940, used wave power to light navigation lights.

Interest in wave power strengthened in 1973, when the Arab nations invoked an embargo on the export of oil.

Universities around the world embarked on research to harness the power of the wave at such institutes as MIT and the US Naval Academy in this country. As a side note, the US Navy is currently heavily involved in the use of green sources of energy and is pushing away from a dependence on foreign oil supplies. In other countries, those involved in wave power technology were the University of Edinburgh and Norwegian University of Science and Technology. After the oil began to flow again, research slowed. Leading the way in research today is the University of Oregon, which has partnered on several installations along the Oregon coast.

Now with increases in fossil fuel costs and concern about the effects on the environment of global climate change, advances in wave power technology to create energy are full steam ahead.

Waves- how are they formed

As the sun heats the surface of the earth it creates uneven heating, which, in conjunction with the earths rotation, creates wind. Waves are formed by wind passing over the surface of water. As energy is transferred to the water it forms ripples, then, as the force of the wind continues to release energy on the surface, the water forms waves. If this process continues over an extended length of the waters surface, ocean swells are formed. These ocean swells can travel great distances without a substantial loss of energy.

The World Energy Council estimates that the energy produced by the power of the earths ocean waves would produce two times the amount of electricity that is currently created by all other sources of electrical production, including coal and natural gas. This would be done without the hazardous emissions generated by coal and natural gas fired plants. For a more complete list of pollutants and the effects of mining for coal see Energy Loft

Wave Power- The technology

A number of companies have entered the wave power generation field. Some are funded by private infusion and businesses themselves. Others are supplemented by grants or incentives from governmental entities. The countries of Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Australia are investing heavily in this technology.

Ocean Powered Technology (OPT) is headquartered in Pennington New Jersey. OPTs PowerBouy has been deployed commercially in six locations: Atlantic City, NJ, Oahu, Hawaii, Santona, Spain, Hayle, England, Reedsport, Oregon and Cross Bay ,Oregon.

In Oahu, OPT is working with the US Navy and Marines at the Marine base supplying electricity from the offshore PowerBouy array.

As you can see by the photographs, the bulk of the PowerBouy is located under the surface of the ocean and, with its design; it can be used to mount navigation signals. Communication devices and monitoring equipment can also be mounted on the buoy. They have designed their trademarked Talk on Water that allows boaters to use cell phones offshore, a great benefit for boaters if an emergency arises.

Voith Hydro Wavegen Limited is headquartered in Germany with offices and manufacturing facilities in Inverness, Scotland on the North Sea. In Islay, Scotland, Voith Hydro has a tide turbine generator built on the shoreline that looks like a concrete bunker.

Their offshore tidal current turbine looks like a wind turbine, but this one is underwater, as can be seen on this video produced by Voith Hydro. The blades are approximately 26 feet in diameter and seven stories high.

Pelamis Wave Power Ltd.is headquartered in Edinburgh Scotland. Their Pelamis Wave Energy Converter has the appearance of a segmented snake that is partially submerged when deployed. The joints incorporate hydraulic rams which pump the high-pressure fluid through motors when the wave passes along the unit.

Pelamis units are used at the first commercial wave farm at Agucadoura, Portugal and a phase of the project is planned for the near future

There are undoubtedly numerous other companies and designs, but these are fine examples of the work that is being done in the wave power generation field.

The Original Post is Located Here: Wave Generators – Power From The Sea

Wave energy is produced when electricity generators are placed on the surface of the ocean. The energy provided is most often used in desalination plants, power plants and water pumps. Energy output is determined by wave height, wave speed, wavelength, and water density. To date there are only a handful of experimental wave generator plants in operation around the world.

The Aguadora Wave Park (AWP) in Portugal is the worlds first commercial wave farm. The AWP produces roughly 2.25 Mega-Watts of power (enough for 1500 homes) and cost just over 8.5 million euros to deploy (though by 2009 costs are expected to exceed 70 million euros).

Construction and Maintenance

Most turbines require a constant, powerful flow which works in opposition to the very nature of waves, as waves are inconsistent in both direction and power. Powerful storms and the corrosive power of salt water are also adversarial to the construction of a reliable energy collection device. Accounting for the aforementioned problems, a device and its maintenance may become too expensive to be a reliable alternative to coal, oil, biodiesel or even solar power.

Harnessing the Waves

Wave energy collection is, however, remarkably passive. Unlike oil which requires a distillation process before energy can be used, wave energy is automatically converted by turbines. Wave energy is also environmentally friendly, as it creates no atmospheric pollution and has a small carbon footprint (non-existent if not for the manufacture of its devices). More-so, it allows us to utilize a space which has, for most of history, been underutilized: the ocean.

The flowing waters in the rivers and tidal waves can be a good source of alternative energy. With 70% of the earth’s surface covered with water, a great amount of energy can be produced by placing turbines at strategic locations under strong currents. This method of generating electric power is called hydrokinetic power generation.

The Future of Wave Power

According to Trey Taylor Co founder & president of Verdant Power, 4 commercial projects are planned for the next 3-5 years which should have the capacity to produce more than 200 MW when operating in waterways. As great minds continue to tackle the problems of renewable energy, we may see major advancements making wave energy more feasible. Groups such as OREC (Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition), continue to drum up support for projects, but it seems policy makers are a bit uncertain of wave energy’s true benefits.

For now we should focus on implementing wind power and solar power strategies to replace our dependence on oil. It may seem like a panacea on paper, but the reality exposes the truth, wave power is just not ready for wide-scale commercial use yet.

The Original Post is Located Here: The Potential of Wave Power

Agucadoura Wave Farm - Pelamis

As the conventional sources of energy are dwindling, scientists are continuously looking for alternative sources of energy. We are frequently reading about generation of alternative and clean energy from unconventional sources. Portugal built Agucadoura, the world’s first wave farm off its coast. This wave farm has three Wave Energy Converters which are producing a total of 2.25MW.

If we can trap the wave power of oceans as a new alternative energy resource most of our energy crisis can be resolved. It is estimated that if we can install these 142m long wave energy converters all over the world’s oceans, 2 terawatts of power can be harnessed — twice the consumption of the entire world. We all know that this kind of alternative energy solution will be quite impractical to implement but we can definitely trap the ocean wave clean powerhouses for small-scale rollout. These types of alternative energy resources can provide the necessary respite for an energy-starved planet.

Currently four cylindrical caterpillar-look-alike converters are being used to harness the wave power. These carbon steel cylindrical wave energy converters are 142m long and weigh 700 ton. They are designed and built by Pelamis Wave Power generating a total of 2.25MW. These wave energy converters produce clean electricity for 1,500 homes at peak hours. The Agucadoura station will open another 25 Pelamis units later on, thus generating 21MW of power. They will save 60,000 tons of CO2 per year compared to a conventional fossil fuel plant. Humankind has realized that ocean waves can prove to be good alternative energy resources.

Each wave converter consists of four articulated sections. When the waves move up and down these four sections move too. At the hinges between sections, hydraulic rams utilize the wave motion to drive generators, producing power. This energy is transported by underwater electrical cable to the Agucadoura substation and fed into the Portuguese national grid.

The Original Post is Located Here: Agucadoura Generating Power for 1,500 Homes

The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter

Wave power is the term used to describe the harnessing of the energy contained in the ocean’s surface waves, and converting that energy into a useful form – usually electricity generation. Wave energy is essentially stored, concentrated wind energy, the waves being created by the progressive transfer of energy from the wind as it blows over the surface of the water, making wave power a renewable energy source and although it is often grouped together with tidal power and ocean currents, it is a separate and distinct energy source.

Although wave power generation is not a widely employed commercial technology at the moment, there have been many attempts at using it since at least 1890. Even though waves are a powerful source of energy, it is not easy to harness this energy and convert it into electricity in large amounts. Thus, wave power stations are rare.

A company called Pelamis Wave Power Ltd developed a method of offshore wave energy collection, using a floating tube called “Pelamis”. This long, hinged tube (about the size of 5 railway carriages) bobs up and down in the waves, as the hinges bend they pump hydraulic fluid which drives generators.

The world’s first commercial wave farm is based in Portugal, at the Aguçadora Wave Park and consists of three 750 kilowatt Pelamis devices.

The Original Post is Located Here: Wave Power – An Introduction