Ed Miliband MP Visits Pelamis Wave Power | 5 March 2010
Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, today visited Pelamis Wave Power to see the final assembly of the P2, our next generation of wave energy converter. He was accompanied on his visit by local MP, Mark Lazarowicz and by Dave Rogers, E.ON UK's Regional Director for Climate & Renewables and Adrian Chatterton, head of construction for E.ON UK.
Ed Miliband was invited to climb inside the new Pelamis to see the fully assembled joint and power take-off system first hand. He later said “I am delighted to have had the opportunity to see the wave energy industry in action here today. I have been extremely impressed both by the Pelamis technology itself, and by the unique and visionary project that that Pelamis Wave Power and E.ON are delivering. The project is pulling the technology and sector forward, out of a long research and development phase and over the commercial Rubicon. It is exactly the type of project that our Marine Renewables Proving Fund was designed to support, it will lay a solid foundation for the Government’s commercial aspirations for the sector moving forward.”
Top photograph; Mark Lazarowicz MP, Max Carcas PWP, Ed Miliband MP, Adrian Chatterton E.ON, Richard Yemm PWP and Ed Maycock PWP, tour PWP’s assembly facilities in Leith.
Bottom photograph ; Ed Miliband climbs onto the P2 machine, photographed with Keith Lawson, senior operations engineer at PWP.
First P2 elements launched in Edinburgh | 15 February 2010
PWP recently launched the first tubes of the E.On P2 Pelamis machine. With specialist heavy-lift equipment from Mammoet, the 190tonne tubes were moved from PWP’s fabrication hall to the nearby quayside. From there they were individually lowered into Leith Docks where they joint union was made. A further three tubes will be launched in March for final assembly and ballasting.
P2 Project Awarded £4.8m of Funding | 2 February 2010
Pelamis Wave Power and project partners E.ON have secured £4.8m of funding from the UK government’s Marine Renewable Proving Fund (MRPF). The MRPF is a government initiative managed by the Carbon Trust with funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) created with the intent of supporting the most promising technologies in the marine industry.
Max Carcas, PWP’s Business Development Director, said “Pelamis Wave Power and our partners on this project E.ON, are delighted to have won such a significant award to support the manufacture, deployment and testing of our second generation Pelamis ‘P2’ machine. The P2 encompasses both our real at-sea operating experience with the first generation of machines, and a number of major technical innovations to improve manufacturability and enhance economic performance. The MRPF scheme represents a timely step-change in the levels and nature of support available from the UK Government, and is certain to both accelerate industry progress and to further cement the lead currently enjoyed by the sector in this country”.
The first P2 machine is currently under construction at PWP’s headquarters in Leith and will be deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre, Orkney, later this year. The project with E.ON is the UK’s first commercial supply contract within the marine sector. The MRPF scheme will allow PWP to increase the scope and pace of trials planned for this machine.
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Joint Venture with Vattenfall Announced to Develop Wave Power off Shetland | 16 December 2009
PWP and Swedish utility company Vattenfall today announced a joint-venture to develop a wave power project off the
The launch of the joint-venture, called Aegir Wave Power Ltd, is announced today, the same day that Vattenfall’s new office in Edinburgh, and the first in Scotland, is due to be officially opened by the First Minister, the Rt Hon Alex Salmond MP, MSP.
Progress on P2 Pelamis Build | 6 November 2009
PWP recently completed the installation of the accumulators, transformer and associated switchgear for the P2 Pelamis machine. The accumulators store and smooth the fluctuating energy absorbed from waves to allow Pelamis to generate at a steady continuous rate. The transformer is used to step up from our generating voltage of 690V to our current export voltage of 6.6kV. Once the modules are complete they will be joined to the tubes to complete each section.
The P2 configuration allows more energy storage to be included at a lower cost, as longer individual accumulator vessels can be used. This reduces the cost of energy and further improves power quality.
The build method is very similar to that commonly used in shipbuidling and submarine assembly where systems are installed in ‘slices’ which are subsequently welded together. This speeds up the assembly, minimises confined space work, and allows all systems to be modular. Hence the ‘slices’ can be fabricated in several locations if required and shipped to final assembly sites around the world.
First P2 Module Fabrication Complete | 3 November 2009
Last week, the first of four power take-off modules for the E.on P2 Pelamis machine arrived at PWP’s assembly facility in Leith. The modules, each over 4.5m in diameter and 7m long will house the hydraulic power take-off systems and electrical generators. The modules were fabricated in Fordoun near Stonehaven by Neptune Deeptech. Their arrival is a significant milestone in the P2 machine’s assembly.
Our aim is to complete final assembly of the machine in spring 2010 and commence operations at the European Marine Energy Test Centre (EMEC) in Orkney during the summer. This will be the second generation Pelamis machine to be tested at EMEC. In 2004, PWP’s prototype Pelamis was the first machine at EMEC to generate to the UK grid.
