World’s First Wave Farm Opens

The world’s first commercial wave farm is operational three miles off the shores of Portugal. The three 140-meter generators were built by British company Pelamis. The “sea snakes” convert the kinetic energy of wave motion into electricity -enough to power 1,000 homes.

Each of semi-submerged Pelamis devices is 142m long, has a diameter of 3.5m and is made from 700 tonnes of carbon steel. A single wave converter is composed of four articulated sections that move up and down as the waves pass along it. At each of the hinges between the sections, hydraulic rams use the wave motion to drive generators to produce up to 750KW of power at peak output.

The electricity generated by the three Pelamis devices will be carried by undersea cable to a substation in Aguçadoura, which will then feed the power into the Portuguese national grid.

The wave farm will eventually add another 25 generators, enough to produce up to 21 megawatts of power, with no CO2 emissions. Link, Via: Neatorama