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PORTUGAL: Waves of Energy Come Ashore

Mario de Queiroz

PÓVOA DE VARZIM, Portugal, Sep 24 2008 (IPS) - The mighty waves rolling in from the Atlantic ocean towards the northern coast of Portugal have been harnessed to produce electricity that will supply the homes of some 6,000 people.

Several countries are experimenting with prototypes for electricity generation using wave power, but as of Tuesday Portugal has become the pioneer of commercial energy generation from the waves for consumers.

At the inauguration of the Aguçadoura Wave Park, located in the waters off the northern town of Póvoa de Varzim, Economy and Innovation Minister Manuel Pinho predicted that in 10 years’ time, wave power would be as important as wind power is today.

Renewable energy sources at present account for “40 percent of electricity production” in Portugal, especially solar and wind power, “which only 15 years ago were nothing but experimental techniques,” the minister said on Tuesday.

Pinho stressed that Portugal and Denmark are presently “the most advanced countries in the world in the technology” of harnessing wave energy.

The importance of this project lies precisely in its pioneering character and its planned expansion, because in terms of investment and electricity production the amounts involved so far are modest.

The 12.5 million dollars invested in the Aguçadoura Wave Park will translate, in the first place, into supplying electricity to the equivalent of a small town of 1,500 family homes with an average of four persons each.

The wave farm is operating with wave energy converters manufactured by a Scottish company specialising in this technology. Three floating tubes with articulated segments move up and down with the waves and use the motion to generate a total of 2.25 megawatts (MW), equivalent to the output of one wind turbine in a wind park.

An insignificant drop in the ocean, perhaps, in a country of 10.5 million people, but its importance lies in its future expansion, according to executives of Spanish renewable energy firm Enersis and its associate, Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power (formerly Ocean Power Delivery).

Electricity from seawater in motion has also been generated in Italy since 2006, by harnessing the power of the strong currents in the straits of Messina which separate the island of Sicily from the mainland. In Portugal, in contrast, it is the large and powerful Atlantic ocean waves that provide the energy.

This is a modest amount, but it is the initial phase of “the first electricity station in the world to use wave power as a renewable energy source,” Rui Barros, an engineer and the director of new projects at Enersis, told IPS during a visit to the Aguçadoura plant two years ago.

Enersis is regarded as the lead company in the renewable energy sector, with extensive experience in the use of hydraulic, photovoltaic, geothermal and biomass energy sources in the Iberian peninsula.

According to estimates by the Economy Ministry, in the next 40 years energy production from wave power could reach a value equivalent to 30 percent of Portugal’s current 188.5 billion-dollar gross domestic product (GDP).

Antonio Sarmento, the head of the Wave Energy Centre, said Portugal could control 10 percent of the world market for this technology and for the equipment to manufacture wave power stations, predicted to be worth 385 billion dollars.

The Pelamis wave energy converters for the Aguçadoura project were assembled at naval dockyards at Peniche, 125 kilometres north of Lisbon, where three enormous tubes, 142 metres long and 3.5 metres in diameter, were constructed.

The tubes float semi-submerged in the ocean, and are divided into three sections linked by hinge joints. When the hinged sections move with the waves, hydraulic rams inside the devices pump high pressure oil through hydraulic motors, which in turn drive electrical generators to produce electricity.

The kinetic energy harvested from the waves is thus converted into electricity, which is transmitted ashore along undersea cables and enters the national power grid.

The Pelamis wave energy converters, dubbed “sea snakes,” were supposed to come onstream by late 2006, but the project, which began five years ago, has suffered a number of delays.

Finally, though, “the wave park is operational,” said Barros, unable to conceal his enthusiasm. He said the second phase of the project would add a further 27 wave energy converters, boosting electrical capacity by 20 MW. Later, more will be anchored off several points of the Portuguese coast, expanding capacity to over 550 MW.

Studies by the Wave Energy Centre have produced estimates indicating that equipment for harvesting 5,000 MW of power from the ocean waves could potentially be installed off the Portuguese coast.

The inauguration of the Aguçadoura wave farm is the climax of 12 years of arduous research. The project was funded by the European Union and backed by two decades of studies by the Higher Technical Institute (IST) in Lisbon.

Maintaining its place at the vanguard of the wave power sector “is one of Enersis’ goals in coming years, and not only in the Portuguese market,” Barros said. He predicted that the association with Pelamis Wave Power would continue, because this company “has operated in the market since 1997 and has reached a level of know-how that is unmatched in the world.”

Installing the other 27 wave energy converters at Aguçadoura will require an investment of 110 million dollars, 15 percent of which will come out of public funds and the rest from bank loans and from the partnership established by Enersis and Pelamis Wave Power.

A major advantage of the projected 27 “sea snakes” is their environmental impact. According to Barros, they will “save the equivalent of 60,000 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.”

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, emissions of which are associated with global warming and climate change.