Jason Ford

Alstom and SEE set to develop wave-energy site off Orkney

News

Alstom and SSE Renewables have signed an agreement to develop the Costa Head Wave Project, an up-to-200MW wave-energy site located north of mainland Orkney.

According to a statement, the two companies intend to populate the site with AWS-III wave-energy converters, a technology currently under development by AWS Ocean Energy. 



The Costa Head site is located in water depths of 60–75m approximately 5km to the north of mainland Orkney.

SSE Renewables and Alstom propose to develop the site with an initial phase of around 10MW, before moving on to install the full site capacity. 


Established in 2004, AWS Ocean Energy is focused on the development and delivery of its AWS-III wave-energy converter, a floating device with a rated power output of 2.5MW. Alstom acquired a 40 per cent equity share in the company in June 2011.

Full-scale component testing will commence in 2012, with a full-scale prototype planned for deployment at the European Marine Energy Centre in 2014. 



In use, the AWS-III technology consists of a multi-cell array of flexible membrane absorbers that convert wave power to pneumatic power through the compression of air within cells that are interconnected.

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