The world's first commercial breakwater wave energy plant is to be built on the Spanish Atlantic coast for the Basque Energy Board, Ente Vasco de Energia.
The new plant in Mutriku in Northern Spain will work with the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology of voith-siemens Hydro Power Generation’s Scottish subsidiary wavegen.
The new project will see the integration of 16 Wells turbines into Mutriku’s new breakwater being constructed by the local government. Supplying green electricity to around 250 households with a rated power of nearly 300kW, the plant will be commissioned in the winter of 2008/2009.
‘This project represents a major step towards commercialization of wave power as we continue to develop the technology and demonstrate its reliability under commercial operating conditions,’ said David Gibb, General Manager of Wavegen. ‘We are already negotiating further projects in other countries.’