EcoFactor: The world’s first wave power plant is up and floating off the coast of Portugal and has a capability of producing 2.25 MW of clean energy.
Unlike solar and wind power, wave energy is still largely uncharted territory for us. But all that seems to be changing fast as we are ready to harness the energy from the rough ocean waves. The very first Wave Power Plant was set up off of Portugal’s coast and the new power plant contains three individual giant rubber tubes to harness wave power. Named as Pelamis Wave Energy Converters (PWEC), the partially submerged power generators are 3.5 m in diameter and are 140 m long. They can each individually produce 750 KW of energy. The Scottish firm that designed the project plans to put in another 25 Pelamis to raise the capability of the plant to 21 MW.
The giant snake-like structures tap the energy of the waves by channelizing the waters and using them to run the turbines present inside. The energy is transformed to the storage units using underwater wiring. Once the 25 additional generators are in place, a savings of 60,000 tons of CO2 yearly will be gained. Wave energy is also a lot more consistent and continuous than solar power.
The Dark Side:
The project is just not economically viable at this point as it already costs a good $13.1 million. The energy is being produced at a very high price making it commercially a useless system. To add to the woes, rough ocean waves and the slats in ocean water make maintenance of any equipment very difficult indeed.
Via: Dailytech
