Aquamarine wave system successfully delivers grid power

UK marine energy startup Aquamarine Power announced this week that it remains on track to install a commercial version of its Oyster wave energy system this summer, after successfully completing tests this week demonstrating that the system can deliver power to the grid.

The company said that onshore tests using a full-scale test rig at the New and Renewable Energy Centre near Newcastle had shown that the Oyster system should be able to deliver well in excess of the expected output of 350kW.

The innovative system is fixed to the sea bed and provides an "oscillating flap" that is pushed underwater as it is hit by the waves. The movement pumps water at high pressure into two conventional pumping cylinders that generate electricity.

Tests using a single pumping cylinder delivered 170kW of electricity to the grid, suggesting that the full-scale device will exceed the 350kW output the company had modelled.

Martin McAdam, chief executive of Aquamarine, said the test results provided "total proof" that the technology can deliver commercially viable marine electricity.

"These tests prove that we can have a single machine delivering up to a half a megawatt of power and that a farm of these machines can deliver utility-scale power in the order of hundreds of megawatts," he said, adding that the company was on track to begin work this summer to install a full-scale machine at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney.

The test results are a further boost for Aquamarine, which earlier this year signed a deal with Scottish and Southern Energy subsidiary Airtricity to develop sites capable of hosting 1,000MW of marine energy by 2020.