Firm bids to develop wave power

A wave energy project could supply enough energy to power the equivalent of the city of Cork by 2020, it has been claimed.

Tonn Energy, which is backed by the Swedish multinational utility company Vattenfall and indigenous Irish technology firm Wavebob, is looking to develop a wave energy project along the Atlantic coast which could generate 250MWs of electricity, enough for 180,000 homes. It would also employ around 250 people.

Ireland is regarded as one of the best countries in the world for the development of wave power, but the technology to harness such energy is in its infancy. The first commercial wave farm was only opened in Portugal last year.

The technology, which will be trialled in the coming years, will consist of a giant buoy-like structure, 65 metres high and 20 metres in diameter, known as a Wavebob, with moving parts. Costing about €2 million each, they will generate electricity for the equivalent of 350 houses.

A scale model of the structure has already been trialled successfully in Spiddal, Co Galway.

Tonn Energy hopes to start pre-commercial trials of the full-sized Wavebob by 2013 with commercial electricity becoming available by 2015.

If successful, the Tonn Energy project could account for half of the Government’s target of 500MWs of electricity from wave power by 2020. The Government has set a target that 40 per cent of Ireland’s electricity will be generated by renewables by the year 2020.

Tonn Energy project director Harvey Appelbe said wave power could “quite easily” fulfil all Ireland’s heat and electricity needs when sea conditions are right, but the technology, particularly the grid would have to be developed. “There are vast quantities of potential energy because we have so much sea. We are in the superleague of wave energy,” he said.

Vattenfall is to provide the initial investment of €1 million which will be used on a test site off the coast of Belmullet, Co Mayo which has some of the best waves in Ireland. The project will also be supported by Sustainable Energy Ireland.

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan said Ireland could succeed in wave power in the same way that Denmark has done with wind power, generating a quarter of all its energy needs from that source.

“The involvement of Vattenfall gives us huge credibility that these devices will be work. If wave energy is available, the potential for us to become an energy exporter becomes much more feasible,” he said.

“The Government has set a very clear timeline and planning horizon. We’re on target in terms of having that grid connected site. If full scale devices are capable of surviving the very harsh marine conditions out there, there is nothing to stop us generating huge amounts of electricity.”