Waveplam

On the 22nd January 2009 the Scottish Government granted consent for the Siadar Wave Energy Project (SWEP) on the Scottish island of Lewis.

The SWEP is being developed by the renewable energy developer and operator npower renewables, a fully owned subsidiary of RWE Innogy, and uses wave energy technology developed by Inverness-based company Wavegen, a wholly owned subsidiary of Voith Siemens Hydro. The wave power station will consist of a concrete breakwater structure located ca.350 metres off the coast at Siadar Bay with an electricity generation capacity of around 4 MW.

Since 2006 both companies have been working on this proposal to harness power from the Atlantic waves in Siadar Bay to generate electricity using the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology principle: Ocean waves move air in and out of chambers in a breakwater, driving Wavegen’s turbine, known as the Wells turbine, to generate electricity.

Wavegen’s test plant Limpet on Islay, the world’s first grid connected commercial scale wave energy plant, has demonstrated the reliability of this technology since 2000. Wavegen’s technology is now being applied in Mutriku in the Basque Country, Spain, for Ente Vasco de la Energía (EVE) and is expected to be Spain’s first grid-connected wave energy plant.

The breakwater at Siadar Bay will consist of 9-10 concrete caissons placed together on the seabed, each of approximately 25m in length. Each caisson will weigh approximately 3,000 tonnes. A total of 36 to 40 Wells turbines will be used to generate the electricity.

An environmental assessment of the site and surrounding area has been carried out by independent specialists focused on the following issues:

· Landscape and visual

· On shore noise

· Marine habitats and ecology

· Archaeology

· Transport and route access

Based on the assumption of 4MW installed capacity, the Siadar Wave Energy Plant is expected to produce approximately 8,000MWh per year, enough energy to power around 1,500 houses, the equivalent of a fifth of the population on the Western Isles.

Besides its function to generate electricity from the Atlantic waves, it is expected that this structure will help to develop small boat, commercial and leisure craft facilities in Siadar Bay.

It may be one of the first projects to operate under the Scottish Government’s proposed multiple Renewable Obligation Certificates scheme that compels electricity suppliers to ensure that a fraction of the electricity they supply to Scottish costumers comes from renewable sources (wave and tidal) and thus promote marine energy.

For more information:

http://www.npower-renewables.com/siadar/index.asp