Sea snakes of the future

 The UK’s first wave farm, boosted by £4 million worth of new funding from the Scottish Executive, could be going ahead within the year. Linking four of these Pelamis (‘sea snake’) machines together, it’ll be bigger than Portugal’s pioneering project, with a power capacity of 3MW - about the same as one large wind turbine, and producing enough electricity for 2,000 homes. If it proves itself in action, it could be the forerunner of much larger 30-snake wave farms, connected to the shore by a single cable. Developers Ocean Power Delivery claim that 20 of those could supply all Edinburgh’s electricity needs.

2 May 2007