| Portugal Boasts World's First Commercial Wave Power |
| Written by Jozef Winter | ||
| Tuesday, 02 October 2007 | ||
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The wave farm looks essentially like a group of massive snakes, but these behemoths, each the size of a small commuter train, can produce upwards of 750kw each! The farm will have 3 units, and thus have a capacity of 2.25MW, supplying electricity to roughly 2,000 homes. So how do they work?
The machines are essentially a series of semi-submerged tubes which are linked to each other by hinged joints. It is these joints which are the trick behind the system. The joints act as a pumping system, by pushing high pressure oil through a series of hydraulic motors, which in turn drive the electrical generators to produce electricity. Needless to say the machines are moored to the ocean bed. To give you an idea of the size of each module, the 750kw prototype, is 120m long and 3.5m in diameter. Each of these modules is composed of three individual 250kw tube. In addition to Portugal, Ocean Power Delivery has just announced a $8.2 million wave farm project in Orkney, producing a total capacity of 3MW.
Via Inhabitat
Comments
(5)
Sounds like a low maintenance solution.
written by weee recycling , October 03, 2007
Well done to Portugal and Scotland leading the world.
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written by Frank , October 03, 2007
Awesome - I've been waiting for these since playing Alpha Centauri!
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written by Rob , October 03, 2007
Alpha Centauri -- such a life changing experience!
Do 1 thing for the environment
written by do1thing , October 03, 2007
Here in San Francisco we are looking at using the strong tidal flows through the bay channel that the golden gate bridge spans to power water turbines.
Http://do1t.net
Keep It Coming
written by Brian Green , October 03, 2007
It's great to see nations doing this. Now that their system is operational we'll have a viable unit to point to in regard to systems being installed in local waters. I hope all goes well with this new system and I really hope to see a lot more adoption of this technology. There's a lot of energy in those waves that we're completely ignoring (for the most part).
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