Wave Power In Europe Continues To Rock Along

When we first wrote about Wave Hub more than a year ago we said it was like a “giant socket” that new wave power devices could plug in to for real-world testing 10 miles off Britain’s Cornwall coast. Turns out it’s a four-plug socket—and already two of plugs are spoken for as Europe continues to demonstrate how serious it is about making marine power a reality.

Wave Hub said the Irish company Ocean Energy reached an agreement to test its OE Buoy in the platform. The company had been testing a quarter-scale prototype of its device at Galway Bay, Ireland., but for the full-scale version it was lured to the big connection at Wave Hub, where a 15-mile-long subsea cable that weighs 1,300 tons provides a connection to the national grid.

image via Ocean Energy

“OceanEnergy has completed three years of prototype testing in energetic sea conditions and is ready to make the next step to Wave Hub with a full-scale device,” Wave Hub General Manager Claire Gibson said in a statement. “If the testing goes well, we expect to see Ocean Energy deploy an array of devices at Wave Hub.”

Gibson said supporting Ocean Energy’s deployment would allow Wave Hub to fully test their operational procedures and establish the process for securing a marine license, boosting further deployments at the test center. Cork-based Ocean Energy said it expects to deploy the OE Buoy, at cost a of €9 million, at Wave Hub by the end of this year.

The Ocean Energy device is yet another unique, innovate take on producing power from the water. The company says the key to the product is its simplicity, which allows it to survive the harsh ocean environment. “The result of 10 years of research and development is that the OE Buoy has only a single moving part and has just completed over three years of rigorous testing in Atlantic waves,” the company says on its website. “To work in such a hostile environment the platform must be designed to extract energy from the waves efficiently and also survive the worst of ocean storms.”

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