Interesting project to build Pelamis – by Seawatt
Seawatt – a company which beleives that the sea energy can be a part of the solution how the dependency on coal can e broken. The project is on track and should, by 2011, be the first born to see wave power in action. Fist project of this kind in France, at Reunion Island close the city of Saint-Pierre.
Seawatt is a projet of electric power station which would convert an energy from waves into electricity. It’s a clean energy, but has a cost. The cost is 25 millions d’euros. The process is marvelous. Until now the project had been supported by the Region, ADEME and Civis. But Seawatt is financing the project too.
To find 8 million euros.
It’s clear now when the scientific study ends that now the goal is to find 8 million Euros for machines that should be installed on the South of the Island. There are five Pelamis (it’s a name of the serpent….), a kind of sea snakes that would be installed by 2011 in Saint-Pierre, near the peak of the devil.
By day, Seawatt installation will not be visible from shore. At night, it will be illuminated for the safety of vessels.
With the Seawatt project, St. Pierre will be an exceptional maritime city being one of the first sites in the world to utilize the strength of the ocean. Leading to another innovation: the offshore industrial tourism.
These are Pelamis energy converter consisting of “a series of cylindrical sections linked by linear joints. During the passage of waves along the machine, the movement of each cylinder in relation to others is amortized by hydraulic jacks.
EDF (Electricity of France) is also looking for this style of project. The project Seawatt through his label, should continue its research on storage capacity, which would relieve the grid here at the Island when there are high peaks of consuption.
Target 2015: power 20,000 homes
A Pelamis generates 750kW. With 30 Pelamis 2015, the 20,000 households that will be supplied with clean electricity. But for now, it is primarily to make the project viable.
And it would go through an adjustment of rates for purchase of clean energy. Currently, ocean energy is 15 Euro cents per kWh, a rate well below the 40 cents per kWh of solar energy.
CIOMS (Council Interdepartmental Overseas) will be providins an adjustment of geothermal energy and marine. And to give hope to investors to continue to ride the wave of the wave …
