Energy Handbook 2011 - GBR

P o w e r S u m m i t - T h e E n e r g y H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1
F o c u s : H y d r o a n d M a r i n e P o w e r
Epiphany at Sea
Michele Grassi was midway through the Columbus route
when the idea hit him. Some sailors get an anchor tattoo
to commemorate their voyage across the Atlantic, but for
mathematician Grassi the memento was more cerebral.
“I sometimes think of it in terms of how flight was
invented,” says Grassi.
“There were many crazy aircraft projects out there, and in
the end only one succeeded because only one got the idea
that you didn’t need a huge amount of power, but that
you needed to find the right way to move the air around
the wing. We think that we’ve got the idea, our approach
is completely different: to move with the wave, not to
fight it.”
On 11 August 2010, Grassi’s London-based company
40South Energy – a name inspired by the scope of
applications for its product – installed its prototype D100t
machine in a bid to tap the enormous energy potential of
waves. The D100t is one of a series of machines 40 South
Energy has designed to operate below the water’s surface.
Each has a “lower member” at a depth of 15–25 m and
one or more “upper members” at a depth of 1–12 m (the
depths in each case depending on the type of machine
and the nature of the site). The relative motion between
the upper and lower members is converted directly into
electricity.
Previous generations of devices designed to extract energy
from waves have bobbed on the surface of the water, not
only limiting the amount of energy they are ultimately able
to capture but rendering them vulnerable to storm damage.
In contrast, 40South Energy’s machines have the capacity
to autonomously vary their operating depth in response
to changes in sea state. This means that they are able to
operate within the same limits wherever they are installed
and whatever the weather.
“Wave energy is primed to become an
important part of the world’s renewable
energy portfolio,” said Brice Koch, head
of ABB Marketing and Customer Solutions
in November 2010, following a large
investment by the Swedish-Swiss giant
in Edinburgh-based marine technology
company Aquamarine Power.
A Drop in the Ocean
The marine energy sector has long had
a reputation for a kind of Jules Verne
whimsicality. Bad press resulting from
previous failures has made attracting the
right audience for new inventions difficult
for some companies, according to Michele
Grassi of 40South Energy (see Box). “The
first wave devices encountered many
problems, especially in terms of cost and
survivability. That gave the sector a very
bad press,” he says. Martin McAdam,
CEO of Aquamarine Power – the company
responsible for creating the Oyster wave
power technology – supports Grassi’s
assessment and concedes that there have
been plenty of failures in the past: “This
industry hasn’t necessarily covered itself
in glory. I think the industry needs fewer
failures; it needs to be more professional
in its approach. We are happy to share
and work with other developers in the
space. The sooner more of that begins to
happen in this industry the better.”
“At this point technology is not our
main problem,” Grassi says. “Our main
problem is the misconceptions burdening
the sector. When we are able to bring
people in front of our machine and explain
the schematics they understand that
this is a different product to any of its
predecessors. The problem is that because
of the negative perception of wave
energy, people won’t even connect to us
initially.” But the difficulty in marketing
new wave and tidal devices should not be
wholly attributed to a negative perception
of the industry. “It’s very difficult to bring
equity into a business from investors at
the early stages when you’re developing
unproven technologies,” says McAdam.
“The government has a role to play in
this.”
“When you can mix grant funding with
equity you can raise in the market or from
investors, it’s very attractive, because
investors can see that their effort is being
supported by the government.” In addition
to private-sector investment, Aquamarine
Power’s Oyster and Oyster 2 devices have
received financial backing from both the
Scottish and UK Governments. Following
the success of their prototype technology,
these are some of the industry’s most
While the proven success of machines
installed by companies such as Aquamarine
Power and Pelamis Wave Power has
gone a long way to assuaging concerns
about a sector once perceived as “pie
in the sky”, the backing of associations
such as RenewableUK has also helped to
bolster the reputation of wave and tidal.
“Because of the similarities in the policy
challenges between offshore wind and
tidal, from 2004 onwards we made a firm
commitment that we would represent
wave and tidal as well [as onshore and
offshore wind],” says Maria McCaffery,
CEO of RenewableUK. “We saw offshore
wind as paving the way and making
the case for big investments into grid
infrastructure to bring electricity ashore;
we thought wave and tidal devices would
be seriously impeded if they had grid
infrastructure as an additional challenge,
whereas if we succeeded in getting
offshore wind – because the quantities of
electricity are so much greater – it would
justify the investment in the grid. When
wave and tidal followed the infrastructure
would already be in place.”
It is essential that the appropriate support
mechanisms are in place if the UK is to
ensure that its most innovative companies
remain in the country. “I think that when
we look historically at the UK, we have
been great at inventing technologies, but
not necessarily the best at taking full
commercial advantage of them,” says
Martin McAdam of Aquamarine Power.
Charles Hendry, Minister of State for
the Department of Energy and Climate
Change, concedes that the migration of
start-up companies is a concern: “We are
looking at how we encourage people to
develop their technologies in the UK. It is
disturbing that some of the lead players in
the UK have already looked to take their
projects to the next stage of development
elsewhere. We want to encourage them
to stay here, and indeed to be a beacon
for other inventors and developers around
the world to come here.”
technology, according to RenewableUK.
“The UK is now fully committed to
developing the next generation of
commercial renewable energy technologies
in the emerging wave and tidal energy
market,” says the organisation.
The opening of a collection of world-class
wave and tidal testing centres is testament
to how seriously the UK, and particularly
Scotland, is taking the contribution the
marine sector could make to its future
energy mix. The largest of these, the
European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC)
in Orkney, is a “plug and play” facility
– the first of its kind in the world – that
allows companies to test wave devices at
a site outside Stromness on the mainland,
and tidal devices off the island of Eday.
The National Renewable Energy Centre
(Narec) in Northumberland boasts dry
docks converted to enable the testing of
smaller prototype wave and tidal devices.
Wave Hub, installed off the Cornish coast
in September 2010, is a grid-connected
offshore facility which leases space to
developers for the large-scale testing of
wave power devices.
Scotland is offering an additional
incentive for the development of wave
and tidal devices. The £10m Saltire
Prize will be awarded to the team that
can demonstrate, in Scottish waters,
a commercially viable wave or tidal
stream energy technology that achieves
the greatest electrical output, above a
threshold of 100 GWh, over a two-year
period. The prize has attracted interest
from around 131 different projects from
31 different countries and is being run
in conjunction with National Geographic
magazine. “National Geographic are able
to broadcast this, so they’re making
Scotland synonymous with clean energy,
synonymous with green-tech, and
synonymous with the cutting edge on
wave and tidal devices,” says Jim Mather,
Scottish Minister for Energy, Enterprise
and Tourism.
Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of Scottish
and Southern Energy – who has also
In the same way that Denmark and One of the world’s richest sites for wave
invested substantially in Aquamarine
Germany have been able to dominate the energy generation is the Pentland Firth,
Power – echoed Koch’s sentiments:
manufacturing market for wind energy, the stretch of water between Caithness
“Wave energy can play a very important
supporting innovation early is the key in the north of Scotland and the Orkney
part in meeting our electricity needs over
to developing a globally competitive islands. Owned by the Crown Estate, the
the long term.”
promising prospects.
manufacturing industry in marine Pentland Firth has been described as the
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