Islay LIMPET
Encyclopedia
Islay LIMPET is the world’s first commercial wave power device
connected to the United Kingdom
's National Grid.
Following the construction of a 75 kW prototype in 1991, a 500 kW unit was built in 2000, and is located at Claddach Farm on the Rhinns of Islay on the Scottish
island of Islay
. Islay LIMPET (Land Installed Marine Power Energy Transmitter) was developed by Wavegen
in cooperation with Queen's University Belfast.
water column to drive air in and out of a pressure chamber through a specially designed air turbine
. The chamber of the LIMPET is an inclined concrete tube with its opening below the water level. As external wave action causes the water level in the chamber to oscillate, the variation in water level alternately compresses and decompresses the trapped air above, causing air to flow backwards and forwards through a pair of contra-rotating turbines.
Wave power
Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work — for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or the pumping of water...
connected to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's National Grid.
Following the construction of a 75 kW prototype in 1991, a 500 kW unit was built in 2000, and is located at Claddach Farm on the Rhinns of Islay on the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
island of Islay
Islay
-Prehistory:The earliest settlers on Islay were nomadic hunter-gatherers who arrived during the Mesolithic period after the retreat of the Pleistocene ice caps. In 1993 a flint arrowhead was found in a field near Bridgend dating from 10,800 BC, the earliest evidence of a human presence found so far...
. Islay LIMPET (Land Installed Marine Power Energy Transmitter) was developed by Wavegen
Wavegen
Voith Hydro Wavegen Limited is a wave energy company based in Inverness, Scotland. It was founded in 1990 by Allan Thomson.In 2000, Wavegen became the first company in the world to connect a commercial scale wave energy device to the grid on the Scottish island of Islay...
in cooperation with Queen's University Belfast.
Technology
Islay LIMPET is a shoreline device uses an oscillatingOscillation
Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value or between two or more different states. Familiar examples include a swinging pendulum and AC power. The term vibration is sometimes used more narrowly to mean a mechanical oscillation but sometimes...
water column to drive air in and out of a pressure chamber through a specially designed air turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
. The chamber of the LIMPET is an inclined concrete tube with its opening below the water level. As external wave action causes the water level in the chamber to oscillate, the variation in water level alternately compresses and decompresses the trapped air above, causing air to flow backwards and forwards through a pair of contra-rotating turbines.