Following six years of detailed design and development on a seventh-scale model, Ocean Power Delivery Ltd has completed the construction of the first full-scale Pelamis wave energy converter. Similar in size and rating to a modern wind turbine this is the world’s first commercial-scale floating wave energy converter. The unit arrived at the port of Leith, Edinburgh, in February for dockside commissioning (photo, far right), which is scheduled for completion by end-March. Folowing that it will be towed out to its working site, off Orkney, near Stromness. The illustration above is an artist’s impression of a full scale ‘wavefarm’.
The 750 kW machine measures 120 m long by 3.5 m wide and weighs 750 tonnes fully ballasted. It was assembled and fabricated in Scotland.