20 May 2005 - The UK wave energy development firm Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) announced Thursday the signing of an order with a Portuguese consortium, led by Enersis, to build the initial phase of the world's first commercial wave-farm to generate renewable electricity from ocean waves.
The initial phase will consist of three Pelamis P-750 machines located 5km off the northern coast of Portugal, near Póvoa de Varim. The €8m ($10.1m) project will have an installed capacity of 2.25 MW, and is expected to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1500 Portuguese households whilst displacing more than 6000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide emissions from conventional generating plant.
Subject to the satisfactory performance of the first stage, an order for a further 30 Pelamis machines (20 MW) is anticipated.
Richard Yemm, Managing Director of OPD, said: "This is a significant milestone for our company and for wave energy. We see this order as just the first step in developing the Portuguese market, which has the potential to be worth up to a billion Euros over the next ten years."
Gonçalo Serras Pereira, Chairman of Enersis, commented: "After seventeen years of experience developing, constructing and operating mini hydro schemes, and nine years with wind farms, we believe wave energy will be the new Portuguese endogenous renewable resource. This move in conjunction with other potential partners may win significant industrial economic benefits for Portuguese companies as the market is developed and wave energy gains competitive advantage with other renewables."
Enersis SGPS, part of the Semapa Corporation, is one of Portugal's leading renewable energy companies with 100 MW of mini hydro, 500 MW of wind farms under operation/construction and a further 500 MW under development.