| January
19, 2009
Deployment of wave energy converters
in Norway
Following the permit issued in December 2008
by the Norwegian Electricity Authority (NVE),
two Seabased wave energy converters will be deployed
in April near the island Runde in Norway. This
is part of the Maren project where Vattenfall
will test the performance of Seabased type generators
(Seabased AB, Sweden) and demonstrate their endurance
in the rough wave climate at Runde. The project
is a cooperation between Runde environmental centre
(REC) ltd, Vattenfall AB and the Norwegian electricity
producer and distributor Tussa Kraft AS. With
the cable connection to the local grid this will
be a quite unique project in Norway, with projected
spin-off and extention as well.
The site is near the island Runde off the Norwegian
west coast, about 500 m from the SW shore. The
installation will consist of two Seabased wave
power devices, an under-water switchgear and a
sub-sea cable connecting the 40 kW generators
to the 22-kV grid. The wave power system, to be
deployed in April 2009, will be operative for
2-3 years.
As the geographic extent of the site is small
and the time period for testing will be limited,
the potential environmental impact will most likely
be small and possibly below detection. An accompanying
environmental monitoring programme will stil collect
the necessary documentation on this, with the
option to disrupt the tests in the case of unexpected
events. The physical performance of the generators
and the ambient wave climate will be monitored
with measured data transferred to shore continuously.
Monitoring and evaluation of data will take place
at REC as well as by Tussa and Vattenfall though
an advanced, shared ITC system.
The produced electricity will be fed onto the
local grid and distributed locally. The project
will be presented in the visitor centre of REC,
in the new, energy-friendly building to be completed
in May, 2009. The wave buoy will be deployed at
the end of January, and the installation of generators
and the sea cable will be completed by April.
Lars G Golmen, tel. +47 4789 0957, email: lars@rundecentre.no
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