First Online Wave Project Coming to...Portugal

Looks like Portugal will beat Scotland and of course, the U.S. in the race to become home to the world's first commercial wave farm as reported in
Wave farm' project gets green light (CNN, 5/20/05). The article reports:

A pioneering commercial wave power plant, producing clean and renewable energy, is to go on line off Portugal in 2006, after a contract was signed this week, project partners announced Friday. The companies claimed the so-called "wave farm" will be the world's first such commercial operation. The power generators, like giant, orange sausages floating on water, will use wave motion to produce electricity by pumping high-pressure fluids to motors, Norsk Hydro AS said. The Norwegian energy company is a major backer of the project.

The generators were developed by Ocean Power Delivery, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, which signed an euro8 million (U.S. $6.25 million) contract with a Portuguese consortium to build three Pelamis P-750 wave power generators next year.

The project will order 30 more generators from the consortium -- headed by the Enersis SPGS power company -- by the end of 2006, if the initial phase is successful, Norsk Hydro said.

Everyone with an interest in ocean renewables will be following this project as it progresses.