Renewable energy company RWE Innogy is collaborating with Wavegen to develop one of the world’s first wave power stations. It is to be on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland.
RWE Innogy’s UK subsidiary, npower renewables, and Scotland-based Wavegen have submitted a planning permission application for the pilot project at Siadar Bay. The move comes just days after the Scottish government rejected a planning application for a major onshore wind farm on Lewis.
RWE and Wavegen hope to construct a 4 MW wave energy plant using oscillating water column technology. It would involve building a breakwater containing a series of turbines and air chambers.
If planning consent is received, construction work could begin in 2009 and would take around 18 months, says RWE, which is also working with Marine Current Turbines to develop one of the world’s first tidal stream projects in Wales.
If consent is granted, the Siadar Wave Energy Project (SWEP) will be the first project to operate under the Scottish government’s Marine Supply Obligation (MSO), which aims to promote the development of first generation marine energy power stations.
“We remain convinced that the SWEP could be the gateway to harnessing the best wave resource in the UK. This pilot scheme could be the stepping stone to realising large-scale wave energy projects around the UK and worldwide,” said Bill Langley, marine development manager for npower renewables. “The Scottish government provides a number of mechanisms, including the MSO, to promote the development of marine renewables projects, and that encouragement has been critical to bringing this project forward.”
The Scottish government is keen to promote renewable energy development in Scotland and the Western Isles in particular, but recently turned down an application by Amec and British Energy to build a 650 MW wind farm on Lewis. The government ruled that the development, which was overwhelmingly opposed by local residents, would have a significant adverse impact on local peatland and its associated wildlife.
Wavegen says it has identified a number of locations around the UK suitable for its Limpet wave energy technology, a prototype of which has been operating on the island of Islay, Scotland, since 2000. It is also planning to install Limpet devices in a project in northern Spain.
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