The potential for electricity and jobs

YOU need only stand on a beach to get a feeling of energy all around you — sun and wind on your face, the power of the waves, the ebb and flow of the tides. But, very little of that energy is being harnessed.

Increasingly, however, experts are being forced to look to the sea as a source of energy and a significant amount of our energy may be provided from the ocean in the next decade, according to early indications from research being carried out off the Galway coast.

Late last year, Ocean Energy Limited, with the help of University College Cork, completed extensive tests in severe weather conditions off the west coast that proved Irish-designed and built wave energy technology can generate a commercially viable source of electricity.

The EU-backed sustainable energy research and development project involving 12 companies and universities from around Europe, including Cork-based Ocean Energy, is set to continue for a few more years before commercial energy production gets underway.

The aim of the research is to develop new systems for wave energy devices using Ocean Energy’s wave energy appliance, or buoy, in Galway Bay as its test platform.

At present, there are very few ocean energy power plants and most are fairly small, but the world’s oceans may eventually provide us with energy to power our homes and businesses. Ireland is located at the centre of one of the most favourable climates for ocean wave energy in the world.

There are three basic ways to tap the ocean for its energy — through waves, high and low tides, or temperature differences in the water.

Energy from moving waves can be used to power a turbine. Most wave energy systems are very small, but they can be used to power a warning buoy, or a small lighthouse.

Tidal energy can also be created by trapping tides in reservoirs behind dams when tides come into the shore. Then when the tide drops, the water behind the dam can be let out just like in a regular hydroelectric power plant.

Ocean Energy will be using an electricity generating prototype in Galway Bay over the next three years as a test platform.

The group taking part includes a company from Portugal, a Lisbon university, a wave energy research centre from Lisbon, a research company from Spain, the University of Limerick, UCC and Ocean Energy, to mention some of those involved.

John Keating, commercial director with Ocean Energy, believes the development of wave energy technologies could create thousands of jobs in Ireland by 2020.

He also told a seminar in Brussels, attended by European and US developers of wave and tidal energy technologies, the wave energy sector had the potential to generate over €1 billion for Ireland by 2020.

The development of wave energy would not only secure electricity supply for Ireland, but could also generate up to four times the country’s energy requirement on the west cost alone. “It will also reduce Ireland’s CO2 emissions by up to 750,000 tonnes per annum by 2020,” Mr Keating added.

Ocean Energy is on course to supply electricity generated by wave energy to the national grid by early 2011.The company recently disclosed that commercially viable levels of electricity had been generated by the company’s wave energy appliance, moored off Spiddal.

The Irish Government has a commitment to deliver 75 mega watts of electricity from wave energy by 2012. Ocean Energy plans to deliver a significant proportion of that.

Tests carried out this year by Ocean Energy, under the supervision of Dr Tony Lewis and his research team at the Hydraulic and Maritime Research Centre at UCC, have proved conclusively that electricity can be produced in commercially viable quantities.

The company is undertaking further research in order to moor a full-scale model of the wave energy appliance in the sea. It will measure 40 metres, weigh 650 tonnes and have the potential to generate enough energy to power up to 500 homes at peak time.

Ireland is thought to have one of the best funding support systems for the development of ocean energy technology in Europe, following the announcement of a €26 million Government package.

Mr Keating said the funding had the potential to attract foreign sustainable energy companies and establish the country as a world hub for ocean energy development.

“The development of ocean energy has the potential to create a whole new industry for Ireland, provide a very large portion of our energy needs and create over 4,000 jobs“, he added.

The Government has increased the ocean energy targets for 2012 and 2020 to 75mw and 500mw, respectively.

Ocean Energy, meanwhile, received the coveted Pioneer Award at this year’s Energy Ocean event in Texas.