Scotland Goes Ahead With World's Largest Wave Energy Project

Scotland has given the go-ahead for the world’s largest wave energy project.

At 40 megawatts (MW), it will provide energy to nearly 30,000 homes. 

Aquamarine Power’s subsidiary, Lewis Wave Power, will install 40-50 "Oyster" devices, but it has to wait for the undersea cable to be in place which won’t happen until 2017, says transmission firm SSE.

ABB holds an equity share in Aquamarine, one of its many cleantech investments.

Oyster is essentially a wave-powered pump that pushes high pressure water to drive an onshore hydro-electric turbine. 

The site, off the northwest coast of Scotland, is considered one of the prime locations for wave energy in Europe.

Last year, Scotland created a £18m Marine Renewables Commercialisation Fund to assist commercialization of the wave energy industry. The first funds will be awarded this summer.

The fund will not support tidal energy since three important projects recently secured financial support from funds set up by the UK government and European Commission.

Scotland has 10% of Europe’s wave power potential, and 25% of its offshore wind and tidal power potential.

"This announcement is a fantastic boost for Scotland’s marine renewables sector and will put Lewis firmly on the world map when it comes to wave energy," says Lang Banks, director of World Wildlife Fund Scotland. 

IBM is using software to evaluate how much noise wave devices make in the ocean in real time.

In the US, New Jersey-based Ocean Power Technologies  is deploying its first wave energy device off the coast of Oregon as part of a grid-connected, 1.5 MW wave power farm – the first wave power station permitted in the US. The computer-equipped buoy is over 100 feet long, and  generates power by bobbing up and down as waves pass by.

Read the latest on US tidal and wave power.