Ocean Power

In October 1973, in retaliation for US assistance to Israel during the Fourth Arab-Israeli War which broke out that month, the Arab-dominated OPEC stopped or heavily restricted oil exports to many Western nations. This move by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries resulted in a massive 70 percent petrol price hike and widespread rationing in both the United States and Europe. That was when Stephen Salter, a professor of engineering design at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, conceived a wave energy converter (WEC) to take power from the sea, with the help of funding from the British government.

"In the autumn of 1973, the Western economies were given the rare chance of a ride in a time machine and saw what the world would be like when there was no longer cheap oil," he says. "Most people thought it looked rather uncomfortable." Forward-thinking researchers, including Salter, increased their efforts to develop alternative energy sources. But according to Salter, "powerful groups set out to destroy what they saw to be a threat." Some say the groups to which Salter refers included nuclear power interests whose lobbying efforts may have caused the British government to shut down funding to his pro- gramme in 1982.

Whatever the background politics, it was only in September 2008 – 30 years after Salter’s pioneering efforts to harness the power of the sea – that the world’s first commercial wave farm was turned on off the coast of Portugal. There, in Aguçadoura, three long, red, steel snake-like devices are twisting, flexing and bobbing on the surface of the sea – producing clean, renewable energy with every move they make.

Called Pelamis, they are named after a type of sea snake and are the work of Richard Yemm, one of Salter’s students.

Once testing of the units is complete, the plan is to deploy 25 more, with a total generating capacity of 21 megawatts. Max Carcas, business development director of Pelamis Wave Power, notes with cautious optimism that, "this being the first time these machines have been deployed, we have a conservative programme of operation." He points out that the company intends to build up its experience for progressively longer periods of time, and in a wider range of sea states, until the design is fully proven.