Pelamis, the company that built the three wave power generators installed off the coast of Ecuador, has been unable to redeploy them after they were brought onshore for maintenance.

The sea snakes are owned mostly by an investment firm that is responsible for the upkeep of the devices. But that firm is now low on cash and looking to sell off some of their assets. So the wave power plants have remained on shore since November with no redeploy date in site.

The power plants were originally hoped to produce 750 MW a piece, but never produced much more than 200 MW. Add that to occasional problems with buoyancy and we can see that this truly is a pilot project.

Pelamis still is very much at the forefront of wave power technology, but the technological hurdles are quite large. Dealing with marine conditions and vastly changing weather patterns has made it difficult to keep wave power units operating. Indeed, the 72 foot-tall AquaBuOY was lost at sea about a year ago.

Wave and tidal power remain fledgling industries. But with the amount of power out there to capture, we certainly won't be surprised when people keep on trying.

Offshore locations offer some of the most reliable and powerful sources of renewable energy, both wind and wave. Unfortunately, it's also more difficult to build the infrastructure to capture that energy. From sea-floor anchors to underwater electrical cables, it's all very complicated and expensive.

Ocean Energy Ltd. is considering these problems and wondering... why not build wave-power projects where the infrastructure is already in place? Their patent-pending device, the Wave Treader, does just that. It simply straps onto existing wind turbines and then it generates power as waves flow past. Each of these devices could create as much as 500 kW of power, increasing each wind turbine's power output by as much as 50%.

The power output can then be pushed straight into the wind farm's already-existing distribution infrastructure.

The first full-scale prototype of the Wave Treader is expected this year while commercial deployments are scheduled for 2011. One thing Ocean Energy might not be counting on, however, is that existing wind farms were built with specific levels of stress in mind. Having paddles sticking off the side of the turbine specifically designed for capturing the power of waves might wreak havoc on safety models, especially if these devices aren't able to get out of the way during severe weather.

Newly-built wind farms, of course, can take these devices into account, but we'll have to see what the engineers think about retrofitting existing turbines. Even if retrofitting isn't an option, that shouldn't hold this technology back too much, since around 1,000 offshore wind turbines are scheduled to be built between 2011 and 2015 in the UK alone.

Via TreeHugger