Aquamarine’s Wave Energy Oyster Takes Big Step Forward

MendoCoastCurrent, October 30, 2009
Just last week in Scotland the Oyster from Aquamarine Power passed a crucial test and is no longer in locked-down position on the seabed. Now the Oyster moves back and forth in the ocean waves, pumping high-pressure water to its onshore hydro-electric turbine as it readies for full-commissioning.
The Oyster captures energy found [...]

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Pelamis Wave Energy Device Testing Again

NAO NAKANISHI, Reuters, October 5, 2009
A first attempt fell victim to the crisis: now in the docks of Scotland’s ancient capital, a second-generation scarlet Sea Snake is being prepared to harness the waves of Britain’s northern islands to generate electricity.
Dwarfed by 180 metres of tubing, scores of engineers clamber over the device, which is designed [...]

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Aquamarine’s Oyster Now Placed & Connected in Ocean

Hydro Review, August 18, 2009
Off the north coast of Scotland in waters 10 to 12 meters deep, ocean energy developer Aquamarine Power Ltd. has bolted its Oyster wave energy converter to the ocean floor and expects to be generating power by year’s end.
A team of offshore professionals eased the 194-ton converter into the sea at [...]

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Establishing Oyster Nearshore Wave Energy Off Orkney

MendoCoastCurrent, August 4, 2009
Oyster nearshore wave energy technology from Aquamarine Power is in the process of being placed on the seabed in the Atlantic off the coast of the Orkney Islands, Scotland for trials in autumn 2009.
The Oyster is based on a large, hydraulic oscillator fitted with pistons and activated by waves.  The oscillation pumps [...]

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OPT Reaching Milestones with PowerBuoy in Scotland

EnergyCurrent, June 11, 2009
Ocean Power Technologies Inc. (OPT) has reached two major manufacturing milestones in the development of the company’s PB150 PowerBuoy, a wave energy converter that is to be ready for deployment at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland by the end of 2009.
The mechanical elements of the power take-off system of [...]

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Worldwide Investments Increasing in Tidal, Wave and Hydrokinetic Energy

JAMES RICKMAN, Seeking Alpha, June 8, 2009
Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. As the world’s largest solar collectors, oceans generate thermal energy from the sun. They also produce mechanical energy from the tides and waves. Even though the sun affects all ocean activity, the gravitational pull of the moon primarily drives the [...]

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Scottish Oyster Installing at EMEC

MendoCoastCurrent, March 25, 2009

Aquamarine Power has signed a $2.7 million contract with Fugro Seacore to install their wave energy generator, the Oyster, at the European Marine Energy Center.
Aquamarine’s Oyster converter is designed for waters that are from 26-52 feet deep with anticipated installation 550 yards offshore in the second half of 2009.  The Oyster has [...]

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RenewableEnergyWorld “Ocean Energy 2009″ Excerpts

MARSHA W. JOHNSTON, RenewableEnergyWorld.com, March 2009
One hundred and forty-one years ago, the relentless sea off Scotland’s coast inspired the following observation from native son and author George MacDonald:
I climbed the heights above the village, and looked abroad over the Atlantic. What a waste of aimless tossing to and fro! Gray mist above, full of falling [...]

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UK Ocean Energy Quickly Churning Forward

PETER BROWN, EnergyCurrent.com, February 16, 2009
On a Monday morning in May last year, the Atlantic tide set a turbine in motion on the seabed off Orkney, and the energy captured was connected to the national grid. It was, said Jim Mather, Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, a “massive step forward”.
The amount of electricity [...]

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Pelamis P2 Powers On in Orkney

MaritimeJournal.com, February 12, 2009
Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power has won an order from UK renewable energy generator E.On for the next generation Pelamis Wave Energy Converter, known as the P2.
The P2 will be built at the Pelamis Leith Docks facility and trialed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney. This is the first time a [...]

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Pentland Firth, the Saudi Arabia of Tidal Power, Growing Full Tilt

JENNY HAWORTH, Scotman.com, February 12, 2009
MORE than three dozen energy companies from across the world are hoping to install wave energy devices in a stretch of sea off the north of Scotland. The renewable energy firms all have their sights on the Pentland Firth, which is considered one of the best locations in the [...]

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Aberdeenshire Council in Scotland Backing Wave Energy

DAVID EWENCHIEF, The Evening Express, February 11, 2009
The Aberdeenshire Council has pointed to tides – rather than wind turbines – as the best green solution to the energy crisis. The council took part in a consultation on the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Bill, which is going through Parliament, suggesting tide and current generation would be [...]

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New Wave Treader Attaches to Offshore Wind Turbines

MATTHEW MCDERMOTT, Treehuger.com, February 10, 2009
Based off the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company’s Ocean Treader, the Wave Treader is designed to mount onto the tower of an offshore wind turbine.
The Wave Treader concept utilizes the arms and sponsons from Ocean Treader and instead of reacting against a floating spar buoy, will react through an interface structure onto [...]

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E.On Testing Pelamis Wave Energy Device Off Scotland

MendoCoastCurrent, February 10, 2009
E.On is moving forward to install and test a single wave device to be fully operational in 2010. Based around a single 750kW Pelamis P2 device that is currently being built in Edinburgh, it will be installed and tested at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.  
The first year of technology [...]

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Push for Clean Energy Spurs Tidal Power Globally

Bloomberg via The Economic Times, February 2, 2009
LONDON: Three decades ago, engineer Peter Fraenkel created an underwater turbine to use river power to pump water in Sudan, where he worked for a charity. Civil war and a lack of funding stymied his plans. Now, his modified design generates electricity from tides off Northern Ireland.
“In the [...]

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Scotland’s Siadar Marine Energy Project Given Go-ahead

BBC News, January 22, 2009
One of the world’s largest wave stations is to be constructed in Scotland off the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles.
The station will create up to 70 jobs and advance Scotland’s bid to lead the world in renewable energy, First Minister Alex Salmond said.
Ministers have granted consent for an application [...]

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Capturing Ocean Energy

Guardian.co.uk, December 3, 2008
Way back in Napoleonic Paris, a Monsieur Girard had a novel idea about energy: power from the sea. In 1799, Girard obtained a patent for a machine he and his son had designed to mechanically capture the energy in ocean waves. Wave power could be used, they figured, to run pumps and [...]

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$15 Million Ocean Energy Contest Launches in Scotland

JAMES OWEN, National Geographic News, December 2, 2008
The race is officially on for a U.S. $15 million (10 million Euro) prize for harnessing the power of the oceans.
The winning marine renewable energy innovation would provide a serious energy alternative to burning fossil fuels, which contribute to global warming.
Details of the Saltire Prize Challenge were announced [...]

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US Wave Energy Having Temporary Setbacks

Platts/McGraw-Hill, August 2008
Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) is looking to generate power from Scottish waters as well. Nasdaq-listed OPT reported July 28 that it had signed a berth agreement with the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. OPT can, under the berth agreement, deploy and operate its unit as well as hook [...]

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After Slow Start, European Wave Energy Surfs Forward

Platts/McGraw-Hill, August 2008
The burgeoning wave energy sector, which has endured ups and downs in recent years through initial testing of devices and uncertain government support, has recently set sail with new projects that have brought the industry to the brink of commercial development.
Portugal has established its role as a pioneer in wave energy development. Through [...]

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Scotland Now Leading Europe’s Wind Energy Industry

Environmental News Service, July 22, 2008
Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, able to generate enough power for 320,000 homes, has been approved by the Scottish government.
Announcing the new wind farm approval ahead of the World Renewable Energy Congress in Glasgow, First Minister Alex Salmond said the 152-turbine Clyde wind farm near Abington in South Lanarkshire is [...]

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Renewable Energy Centre Applauds Irish & Scottish Feasibility Study

openPR.co.uk, July 23, 2008
Plans announced yesterday for a study into the feasibility of wind and wave farms off the coast of Northern Ireland and Scotland were heralded as a positive step forward by The Renewable Energy Centre
Costing 1.6 million and funded mainly by Inter-Reg, an EU (European Union) funded programme, the study will begin later [...]

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Exeter Scientist Leads Major European Wave Energy Project

Atom.ex.ac.uk, July 21, 2008
As Europe’s largest ocean energy research programme launches, one of its participants speaks of the huge potential for the South West to become a leader in wave energy development.
Professor George Smith of the University of Exeter is a member of EquiMar, a group of 62 scientists from 11 European countries working together [...]

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Scottish Energy Firms to Bring Hydro Power to the People

SEVERIN CARRELL, The Guardian, June 27, 2008
Scotland is planning a renewable energy revolution that would trump the ambitious strategy announced yesterday in London by Gordon Brown – and without building any nuclear power stations.
Brown’s UK-wide strategy sets out how the nation as a whole could reach a target of 30-35% of electricity being generated from [...]

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The Coming Wave

The Economist, June 5, 2008
You only have to look at waves pounding a beach, inexorably wearing cliffs into rubble and pounding stones into sand, to appreciate the power of the ocean. As soaring oil prices and concern over climate change give added urgency to the search for new, renewable sources of energy, the sea is [...]

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Green Giants: The World’s Biggest Clean Energy Projects

WILLIAM PENTLAND, Forbes.com, April 30, 2008

The Middle East is hardly known as the capital of clean energy, but Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are trying to change that.

A few weeks ago, 100-foot-wide propellers began turning on the recently completed World Trade Center building, making Bahrain home to the world’s first building-integrated wind turbine skyscraper. [...]

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Scottish Government Nixes Lewis Wind Farm

LESTER HAINES, The Register, April 21, 2008
The Scottish Government has turned down an application to build a 181-turbine wind farm on the Isle of Lewis, the BBC reports.
The decision confirms a report by the BBC’s Gaelic news service Radio nan Gaidheal back in January, which predicted a red light for the £500m project, proposed by [...]

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DeltaStream Tidal Turbines in Welsh Waters

Renewable Energy Development Blog, April 23, 2008
The latest Tidal Energy venture is a demonstration project in Welsh waters backed by renewable energy developer Eco2, investing £150,000 into Tidal Energy Limited as the company installs DeltaStream. The finance needed by Tidal Energy Limited, which was formerly known as Tidal Hydraulic Generators, will fund the prototype phase [...]

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Scotland’s Pentland Firth Tidal Energy Project

RenewableEnergyDev.com, April 8, 2008
A Dutch tidal device developer has recognised the potential in the Scottish waters and is planning a new tidal energy power plant in the Pentland Firth, hoping to begin development as early as the end of 2008.
Tocardo has established a subsidiary company called Tocardo Tidal Energy with the plan to set up production, assembly and office [...]

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Atlantic Waves to Power Island Homes

JOHN ROSS, The Scotsman, April 24, 2008
A scheme designed to harness the power of the Atlantic to supply electricity to hundreds of homes was unveiled yesterday.
Plans were submitted for a wave-power station on Lewis, one of the first in the world and seen as a model for similar projects in the UK and abroad.
The Siadar [...]

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RWE Innogy Planning Wave Energy Off Scotland

La Société, April 24, 2008
RWE Innogy has submitted a planning application to the relevant authorities for one of the world’s first wave power stations off the Scottish coast. The pilot plant with an output of four megawatts will be installed in Siadar Bay on the Isle of Lewis. If everything goes to plan, construction work [...]

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ScottishPower Renewables Plans To Extend Europe’s Largest On-Shore Windfarm

ScottishPower Renewables, April 25, 2008
ScottishPower Renewables has submitted a Section 36 application to the Scottish Government for an extension of Whitelee Windfarm on Eaglesham Moor by a further 36 turbines – developing the site beyond the 140 turbines that are currently being constructed as part of Europe’s largest on-shore windfarm project.
If approved, the new turbines [...]

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Giant British Wind Farm Plans Blown Away Due to Environmental Concerns

Agence France-Presse, April 22, 2008
The Scottish government has rejected plans to build one of Europe’s biggest onshore wind farms due what it said was the “significant adverse impacts” on the local environment.
Ministers in Edinburgh decided that the 500-million-pound (one-billion-dollar, 625-million-euro) project would have threatened rare and endangered bird populations and damaged peatland on the remote [...]

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$20-Million Prize for Renewable Ocean Energy Announced

CHRISTINE DELL’AMORE, National Geographic News, April 2, 2008
Scotland will offer the world’s largest prize to date for spurring advances in marine renewable energy, the country’s head of state announced today.
The Saltire Prize, of 20 million U.S. dollars, will go to innovators from any nation who design environmentally friendly ocean technology, such as better ways to [...]

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Europe is Leading the Way in Wave Energy

The News & Observer, January 17, 2008, Copyright Business Wire 2008
The Sea Could Supply 20% of UK Energy Demand & ~10% of World Consumption
LONDON – Wave energy sources are not only available in plenty, but are also consistent, predictable and have the highest energy density among all renewable energy sources. The best resource is found [...]

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