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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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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British Wave Energy Buoy Powers On

STEPHEN IVALL, Falmouth Packet UK, June 27, 2009
The ambition for Cornwall to become a world-leading centre for wave energy has moved a step closer to reality with the launch of a two-tonne (2000kg) buoy off the coast of Falmouth.
Developed by a team at the University of Exeter, the South Western Mooring Test Facility (SWMTF) buoy [...]

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Ocean Energy Moving Toward Commercialization

PETER ASMUS, Pike Research, June 17, 2009
The earth is the water planet, so it should come as no great surprise that forms of water power have been one of the world’s most popular “renewable” energy sources. Yet the largest water power source of all – the ocean that covers three-quarters of earth – has [...]

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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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Queen’s University Ireland Creating NextGen Wave Energy

EMMA JACKSON, UniversityWorldNews, March 15, 2009
A research team at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland has renewed a relationship with Aquamarine Power, a leading marine technology energy company. Together they may create the next generation of wave power converters that could some day be an alternative source of power for European maritime states. 
This five-year deal [...]

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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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Artemis Using Digital Displacement to Power New Hybrid Car

BBC News, February 25, 2009
A BMW saloon was converted with equipment to capture energy normally wasted when a driver brakes.
The team from Midlothian-based Artemis Intelligent Power said the equipment was less expensive than the batteries used in existing hybrid vehicles.
Carbon emissions from the prototype were also down by 30% in combined city and motorway driving.
The [...]

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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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CETO Maker Sees Buoyant Future in Wave Energy

DAVID FOGARTY, Reuters Climate Change Correspondent, February 5, 2009
For millennia, Australia’s rugged southern coast has been carved by the relentless action of waves crashing ashore.
The same wave energy could soon be harnessed to power towns and cities and trim Australia’s carbon emissions.
“Waves are already concentrated solar energy,” says Michael Ottaviano, who leads a Western Australian [...]

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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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Five Projects Make Severn Tidal Project Shortlist

RenewableEnergyWorld.com, January 27, 2009 
A shortlist of proposed plans to generate electricity from the power of the tides in the Severn estuary has been unveiled by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.
UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has also announced £500,000 [US $702,000] of new funding to further develop early-stage technologies like tidal reefs [...]

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MCT Demonstrating Tidal Energy in Nova Scotia

MendoCoastCurrent, January 23, 2009
Marine Current Turbines Ltd, the Bristol based UK tidal energy company, in now in partnership Canada’s Minas Basin Pulp and Power Company Ltd to demonstrate and develop tidal power technology and facilities in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. Minas Basin Pulp and Power Company Limited (MBPP) of Hantsport, Nova Scotia is [...]

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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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Great Gabbard Inquiry Launched on Turbine Blade Damage

PHILIPPE NAUGHTON, TimesOnline UK, January 8, 2009
An investigation was under way today into how a 65 ft. blade was mysteriously torn off a wind turbine amid reports of “strange lights” in the sky.
The 300 ft. turbine at Conisholme in Lincolnshire was left wrecked after the incident. Local residents speculate that the damage could have been [...]

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Tidal Energy Limited Gets Boost from Propeller and Wind Technologies

ALOK JHA, Guardian UK, January 5, 2009
Propellers on ships have been tried and tested for centuries in the rough and unforgiving environment of the sea: now this long-proven technology will be used in reverse to harness clean energy from the UK’s powerful tides.
The tides that surge around the UK’s coasts could provide up to a [...]

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Irish Tidal Turbines Now at Full Power

BBC News, December 18, 2008
A tidal turbine near the mouth of Strangford Lough has begun producing electricity at full capacity for the first time.  The SeaGen system now generates 1.2MW, the highest level of power produced by a tidal stream system anywhere in the world.
The system works like an “underwater windmill” but with rotors driven [...]

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OPT Gaining Traction in Wave Energy Projects

MendoCoastCurrent, December 15, 2008
Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) recently reported quarterly financials and also recent developments:
- Deployed and tested a PowerBuoy off the coast of Spain under the wave power contract with Iberdrola
- Awarded $2.0 million from the US Department of Energy in support of OPT’s wave power project in Reedsport, Oregon
- Deployed and tested a [...]

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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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HP Racing Its Solar-Powered Car

THOMAS O’KILL, Education Business Mgr, HP-UK, July 7, 2008
I am the education business manager for the Personal Systems Group (PSG) at HP United Kingdom and I would like to tell you about a great project we are supporting: Solar Powered Cars.
Although a worldwide sponsorship (with solar races across the globe), given the group running and [...]

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Rubber Snake Could Help Wave Power Get a Bite of the Energy Market

EPSRC in the U.K., July 3, 2008
A device consisting of a giant rubber tube may hold the key to producing affordable electricity from the energy in sea waves.
Invented in the UK, the ‘Anaconda’ is a totally innovative wave energy concept. Its ultra-simple design means it would be cheap to manufacture and maintain, enabling it to [...]

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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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BERR Appoints Contractors in U.K. Severn Tidal Power Feasibility Study

Net News Publishers, May 6, 2008
Work to determine the potential of a tidal energy generator in the Severn Estuary is continuing with the appointment of a consortium led by consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff who will manage the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA).
The SEA is a major part of the Severn Tidal Power Feasibility Study. It will [...]

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SSE Building World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm at Great Gabbard

TOM BERGIN, Reuters UK, May 14, 2008
London – Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) will build the world’s largest offshore wind farm and has awarded $3 billion (1.5 billion pounds) in contracts to U.S. engineer Fluor and Germany’s Siemens.
Despite industry doubts about the viability of offshore wind SSE said on Wednesday it would build the farm [...]

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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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Shell Pulls Out of Thames Estuary Wind Farm

LEWIS PAGE, The Register, May 1, 2008
Oil giant Shell has pulled out of the world’s biggest wind farm project, in a move which has cast doubt over the scheme’s future. The £2bn London Array, intended to be built in the Thames Estuary, will need to find a new backer in order to proceed.
For the London [...]

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Centrica Warns on U.K. Wind Farm Costs

BBC, May 8, 2008
Centrica, one of the UK’s biggest energy generators, has warned that the prospect of making money from wind farms is looking “marginal”.
The company says that the rising cost of off-shore wind farms could end up ruining the government’s renewable energy targets. The comments come a week after Shell withdrew from a project [...]

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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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Tidal Stream Turbine Testing in Humber Estuary UK

www.inthenews.uk.co, April 7, 2008
Planning permission has been granted by the Energy Secretary for a tidal stream generator to be tested in the Humber estuary, Stallingborough, United Kingdom.
When in the water the prototype model is estimated to generate up to 0.15MW and it will be one of the first tidal power machines to supply Great Britain’s [...]

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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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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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Climate Expert Says He Underestimated Threat

GERALD WYNN, Reuters UK, April 16, 2008
LONDON – Climate change expert Nicholas Stern says he under-estimated the threat from global warming in a major report 18 months ago when he compared the economic risk to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Latest climate science showed global emissions of planet-heating gases were rising faster and upsetting the [...]

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Islands of Hope in an Ocean of Energy

Harry Fuller, GreenTech Pastures at ZDNet, March 24, 2008
Britain and Ireland have a long and bloody mutual history. They’ve ended open hostility and the neighboring nations now share and compete with a possible future energy source: the restless waves of the North Atlantic. Both Ireland and the United Kingdom are looking to waves and sea [...]

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Tidal Energy Comes of Age in NW Europe

Tidal energy comes of age in NW Europe
Two new tidal energy schemes in Wales and Northern Ireland will showcase a novel technology that is being seen by many as the way forward for this form of renewable energy generation. Sean Ottewell reports
Plans to install the world’s first commercial scale tidal energy system in Northern Ireland’s [...]

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South Korea Coast Tidal Energy Project

RenewableEnergyDev.com, March 17, 2008
An agreement has been signed to develop a huge tidal power field off the South Korean coast. The joint venture between Lunar Energy of the U.K. and Korean Midland Power Company will develop the tidal power plant in the Wando Hoenggan waterway at a construction cost of £500 million.
The scheme will use power from [...]

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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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Wave Hub Gets Planning Go-Ahead

See how the wave hub works

The British government has given planning approval for the world’s first large-scale wave project off the coast of north Cornwall.
Sited 10 miles (16km) out to sea off Hayle, the hub – which would collect energy from wave turbines – could generate electricity for 14,000 [...]

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World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

In September Siemens signed a reservation agreement with Greater Gabbard Offshore Winds Ltd. (GGOWL) for the construction of the world’s largest offshore wind farm off the British coast.
The agreement, by far the largest ever reached for offshore wind turbines, involves 140 Siemens 3.6-MW turbines for delivery in 2009 and 2010.
Once connected to the power grid, [...]

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