Environmental Goods & Services (EGS) News

AWS Ocean Energy Secures Carbon Trust Support to accelerate its commercial development - 27 September 2007

AWS Ocean Energy Ltd, based in Alness, Scotland, is to receive significant further support from the Carbon Trust in the development of the company’s Archimedes Wave Swing (AWS), the world’s first submerged wave energy system. The support is part of the Marine Energy Accelerator Programme (MEA), the Carbon Trust initiative to accelerate the commercialisation of the marine energy sector in the UK. The announcement was made last night (September 24th) by the Carbon Trust at the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth.

Following their successful pilot project in Portugal in 2004, AWS Ocean Energy will deploy its demonstration 250KW pre-commercial prototype at Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre in 2009 and plans to construct a 500KW mini-wave farm in 2010 which will expand to 100 AWS units within three years. In February 2007, the company was awarded grant funding from the Scottish Executive to support its commercial development.

Simon Grey, Chief Executive of AWS Ocean Energy said: “The support of the Carbon Trust is very welcome as we take forward our wave technology for commercial deployment within the next 5 years and by doing so we can take full advantage of the huge energy potential that exists in British waters as well as in waters overseas. We will use the Marine Energy Accelerator funding to ensure that our technology is cost-competitive with other forms of renewable energy by focusing the MEA on the installation, operation and maintenance of our AWS sub-merged wave system.”

The Marine Energy Accelerator is one of the Carbon Trust’s portfolio of Technology Accelerators which aim to accelerate the development of promising low-carbon technologies and to which a total of £28m have been committed to date.

The Carbon Trust is a private company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector to create practical business-focused solutions through its external work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise. The Carbon Trust is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Scottish Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest Northern Ireland.  

Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, said: “We are leading the world in the development of marine energy and the UK is a hotbed of innovation for these key technologies. We have the potential to deliver up to 20 per cent of the UK’s electricity needs from marine energy and there are already a number of exciting technologies in development. To make this potential a commercial reality, marine needs sustained additional funding to accelerate its breakthrough into the mainstream of energy generation sources and the Marine Energy Accelerator is integral to this.”

The Archimedes Wave Swing

The AWS wave energy converter is a high power generator intended for bulk power production to a utility grid. As a wave crest approaches, the water pressure on the top of the cylinder increases and the upper part or 'floater' compresses the gas within the cylinder to balance the pressures. The reverse happens as the wave trough passes and the cylinder expands. The relative movement between the floater and the lower part is converted to electricity by means of a hydraulic system and motor-generator set. The AWS system is scalable and it can be adapted to respond to a wide variety of ocean wave climates. Unlike other wave technologies, the AWS is submerged at up to depths of 50 metres below the surface of the sea.