Shoreline wave power experience with the Islay prototype

The civil engineering construction of Britain's first prototype wave power device was completed in November 1988. The device is located on the Isle of Islay, one of the southern islands in the Inner Hebrides. The unit has been built in a natural rock gully in a headland north of the village of Portnahaven. The station has a biplane Wells rotor direct coupled to a 75kw wound rotor induction generator. During the past twenty months the pneumatic power output has been measured in a wide range of conditions from comparative calm to severe storm. During the past year the turbine generator plant has been designed and manufactured and was installed during the winter of 1990/91. The unit is presently being commissioned and the electrical power output delivered to the grid system on the island. This paper discusses the criteria for selecting sites for coastal wave power stations with particular application to the coasts of the United Kingdom and is followed by a detailed description of the Islay device. In this the hydraulic performance of the water column is discussed with particular emphasis on matching the characteristics of the different power conversion stages and the correlation between prototype and model results. The paper concludes with a general discussion of the construction techniques used and how the technology can be applied to larger systems.