World's First Wave Farm to be in Portugal

Ocean Power Delivery Ltd. (OPD)announced it secured a contract to build the initial phase of the world’s first commercial wave-farm to generate renewable electricity from ocean waves.

The purchase order is from a Portuguese consortium, led by Enersis, and the initial phase will consist of three ‘Pelamis’ P-750 machines located 5km off Portugal’s northern coast, near to Pvoa de Varzim.

The ?8m project will have an installed capacity of 2.25MW, and is expected to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1,500 Portuguese households whilst displacing more than 6,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional generating plant.

A letter of intent has also been issued to order a further 30 Pelamis machines (20MW) before the end of 2006 subject to satisfactory performance of the initial phase.

The project is being supplied by Ocean Power Delivery – Portugal S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of OPD with full rights to manufacture Pelamis machines in Portugal. Construction will begin immediately.

Richard Yemm, Managing Director of OPD, said: “This is a significant milestone for our company and for wave energy. We see this order as just the first step in developing the Portuguese market, which has the potential to be worth up to a billion Euros over the next 10 years”.

Gonalo Serras Pereira, Chairman of Enersis, commented: “After seventeen years of experience developing, constructing and operating mini hydro schemes, and nine years with wind farms, we believe wave energy will be the new Portuguese endogenous renewable resource. This move in conjunction with other potential partners may win significant industrial economic benefits for Portuguese companies as the market is developed and wave energy gains competitive advantage with other renewables”.

Announcement of this order follows high profile meetings held recently between British and Portuguese officials at the British Embassy in April. These were attended by the UK government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir David King, who highlighted the need for immediate action to tackle the potential impacts of climate change.