According to Graham Bibby, the operations director at the firm, a 250kW demonstration pre-commercial prototype will be deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) on the island of Orkney off Scotland. The system is moored to the seabed and operates at least six metres below the surface. Waves move an upper buoy against a fixed cylinder, generating power.
The decision to install the wave system at EMEC was facilitated by a £2.128M (US$4.25M) grant from the Scottish Executive announced in February.
The installation at EMEC follows a pilot project by the company in Portugal in 2004 and subsequent engineering development.
Commenting on the commercial development plans for the technology Bibby said: ‘Building on our work at EMEC during 2008, we plan to construct our first mini wave farm of 500kW Archimedes units by the third quarter of 2009, expanding within 12 months to 20 units. We expect to have installed over 100 units by 2013.’
