Aquamarine Power’s plans to build the first wave energy farm in Scotland have been postponed for at least five years, and the company has shifted its business to component production.
Aquamarine Power was granted planning consent for the construction of 40 MW wave energy site off Lewis island in 2013. The company was supposed to deploy between 40 and 50 Oyster wave energy devices, that would power approximately 30.000 homes.
According to Herald Scotland, the plans for building this site have been postponed for at least five years due to repeated technical failures company’s prototype device experienced while it was tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC).
Herald Scotland reports that the company is now exploring options with other parties regarding the development of the wave farm, and that the Lewis site could be developed as either a multi-technology test zone, or a co-developed wave energy site with other wave energy players.
Aquamarine Power has shifted its business plan to developing component technologies for the wave energy industry, with ‘take off’ systems development as a priority – but the plans to reboot Oyster 800, and the more advanced Oyster 801 have not been abandoned, and the company hopes to focus on that aspect in the future.
“Aquamarine Power is now focussed on the development of the next-generation Oyster in parallel with critical sub-systems such as WavePOD, a pan-industry power take off system being developed in partnership with Bosch Rexroth and Carnegie Wave Energy.
“As well as offering improved performance and reliability at lower cost, WavePOD will be capable of generic application across a range of wave energy technologies, and we hope this innovative approach will accelerate learning and cost reduction in the industry,” a spokesman for Aquamarine Power was quoted as saying by Herald Scotland, a Scottish news publisher.
Early in December 2014, the company announced plans to significantly downsize its business , leaving only core operational and management team to run the company. Aqumarine power stated that this was done due to financial, regulatory and technical challenges wave energy sector was facing at the time.
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Image: Aquamarine Power