A bit of a sad day for Quoceant as we say goodbye to the Pelamis 'P2-001' wave energy converter. The machine now owned by Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has begun to be dismantled at its original maintenance facility, near where it underwent testing in Orkney off the north coast of Scotland. The Quoceant team, all of whom, previously worked for Pelamis Wave Power ran the testing of the machine from 2010 to 2014 at the EMEC test site.
The test programme (which involved two P2 Pelamis machines) was hugely groundbreaking, amassing some 12,000 hours of operational testing and generating over 250MWhrs of electricity into the UK grid. The power take-of sytem demonstrated wave to wire efficiency of over 70% across the power range and a wide range of sea state representing over 90% of annual occurrences.
The machine is to be dismantled by local Orkney company, Green Marine, with components recycled or re-used where possible. The second P2 machine, is now owned by EMEC who are in the process of seeking ideas on future learning opportunities and R&D projects utilising the machine.
Pelamis was a fantastic project to have been involved with and Quoceant are now enjoying bringing our world leading experiences to the wider marine renewables industry. Still we can’t help but wipe a wee tear as we say farewell to the big red sea snake.
