Deployments in Portugal

 

Portugal has been active in wave energy since 1977 through involvement in R&D projects and technology deployment, both nationally and in international collaboration.

 

Several Portuguese non-profit entities have already been involved in R&D projects such as: IST (CENTEC, IDMEC), INESC TEC, University of Porto (CIIMAR, IFIMUP), INEGI, WAVEC, University of Algarve (CCMAR/CIMA), LNEG, University of Aveiro (CEIIA), University of Coimbra (Laboratory of Hydraulics, Water Resources and Environment) and LNEC. Seaports, such as those of Viana do Castelo and Leixões, are sensitized to decarbonization and support the development and adoption of renewable energy technologies, in particular wave energy.

 

Several private companies have also contributed to projects and devices deployment, either as equipment (metal structures, electromechanical components, electrical and anchoring cables) or services (installation, maintenance, remote inspection) supplier, or developer.

 

Academic activities and private companies have already conveyed the registration of more than 60 Portuguese patents in ocean energy, constituting such organizations a national value chain capable of responding to the needs of the sector.

 

Portuguese sea has hosted several experimental wave energy devices. The construction of the first plant in Portugal was completed in 1999 in Porto Cachorro, at Pico Island of Azores archipelago, named ‘Central de Ondas do Pico’. Entirely of Portuguese design, it was the first wave energy plant in the world on a real scale to be connected to an electricity distribution network. An oscillating water column technology produced electricity through a Wells turbine developed by a university (IST) and a company, both Portuguese. This turbine maintained its development path and was later included in other projects outside Portugal. The plant was located over shore, with approximately 400 kW of rated capacity, was under autonomous operation mainly in 2010, being dismantled in 2018 for reasons of safety of the structure.

 

In 2004, a vertical oscillation device built in steel (9 m diameter) at a 1:2 scale, with a linear electric generator with 2 MW of rated capacity, called Archimedes Waveswing (AWS), was placed at a depth of 43 m, 6 km off Aguçadoura beach, near Póvoa de Varzim village (where it was built).

 

In 2008, surface devices called Pelamis were installed 5 km off Aguçadoura beach, consisting of steel oscillating cylinders placed perpendicular to the wavefront, each with a length of 142 m, a 3.5 m diameter, and 750 kW rated power in each of the three joints. They are considered to have formed the first wave energy farm in the world to inject electricity into a national distribution network. Two months after the inauguration, the production was interrupted for technical reasons and the economic crisis of the time justified the end of the project.

 

In 2012, off Almagreira beach, near Peniche village, a technology device called WaveRoller came into operation, consisting of three submerged panels of 18 x 10 m² each, moved by the horizontal oscillations within the waves (surge movements), and a hydraulic generator. This plant had 100 kW of rated power and direct connection to the public grid. In 2010 a second device of the technology was installed 850 m offshore the same location, at 16.7 m depth, with a single panel and 350 kW of rated power, also with connection to the public electrical grid. Both devices were in operation for two years, for testing, having been taken from the sea afterwards.

 

A demonstration device from CorPower technology, named C4, with 120 kW rated capacity, is under construction at Viana do Castelo facilities, expected to be installed offshore Aguçadoura beach, near Póvoa de Varzim, in 2023. The company considers C4 at the commercial development stage, envisaging progressing into an array of devices.  

 

Although the resource is considered weak in Portugal, the Ria Formosa, near Olhão city, hosted between 2017 and 2019 a tidal current device, in this case applied to river currents in an estuary, at a scale of 1:10, through an international project involving University of Algarve. The EVOPOD technology consisted of a horizontal, floating axis turbine with 1.6 kW of rated power at a speed of 1.6 m/s. The project allowed to simulate the operation of the technology in low-lying coastal regions.

 

(Source: www.pico-owc.net; www.teamwork.nl; www.aw-energy.com; https://corpowerocean.com/; https://www.power-technology.com/projects/pelamis/; http://www.oceanflowenergy.com/Evopod-Technology.html)