Breaking waves

Basque energy board Ente Vasco de Energia will be building the world’s first breakwater wave energy plant on the Spanish Atlantic coast.

Based on Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation’s wave technology, the new plant in Mutriku, northern Spain, will work with the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology that has been field-tested for seven years by Voith Siemens Hydro’s Scottish subsidiary Wavegen.

Sixteen Wells turbines will be integrated into Mutriku’s new breakwater plant, which is expected to supply 300kW power electricity to 250 households.

An opening in the front of the breakwater allows the sea to rise and fall within a chamber due to the action of the waves. This motion compresses and decompresses the enclosed volume of air, and the energy generated from this pressure differential is then, using a turbine and a generator, converted into electricity.

Sixteen Wells turbines will be integrated into Mutriku’s new breakwater plant, which is expected to supply 300kW power electricity to 250 households.