SWEDEN
TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION
OPERATIONAL PROJECTS
The only projects that are developed and operational in Sweden, although not commercialised, are the Lysekil wave power project and the previously mentioned Söderfors marine current project. Both are operated by Uppsala University. The Lysekil wave power project installed the first wave energy converter in 2006. The installed capacity is 200 kW but with a new permission to install 20 more wave energy converters which open up for external actors to test their technique. At least two more wave energy converters are being planned for deployment at the Lysekil research site during the first half of 2016. For the Söderfors marine current project, the energy converter was deployed in Dalälven on 7 March 2013.
PLANNED DEPLOYMENTS
The Sotenäs Project was initiated in November 2011 and is planned to become one of the largest wave power plants in the world. When completed, it will have a total installed power of 10 MW. The technology is based on a point absorber connected to a linear generator on the sea bed. The project is developed in two stages, in the first stage 36 wave energy converters, corresponding to 1 MW, have been deployed. In the end of 2015 the subsea generator switchgear was also deployed and connected to the Swedish national grid via a 10 km subsea cable. A number of generators have also been connected to the subsea switchgear and the wave park will consequently start producing electricity to the grid as soon as the buoys are connected to the generators.
The second 9 MW stage will be launched subsequent to the evaluation of the first 1 MW. The Sotenäs Project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency, the power company Fortum and by Seabased Industry AB. Seabased was founded in 2001 as a spinoff from the wave energy converter research carried out at Uppsala University.
Seabased has also signed a contract for a large wave energy plant in Ghana, totalling 14 MW. The wave power plant is the first step in a facility that is expected to reach 1 000 MW when completed. The first wave energy converters and switchgear have already been delivered to Ghana and are under installation. Seabased has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of wave energy in the Andamans in India.
Wave Energy Converters for the Sotenäs project ready for deployment Deployment of a wave energy converter
OTHER RELEVANT DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES
There are several Swedish development companies that are progressing and are testing or will be testing their technology primarily outside Sweden. Among them are CorPower Ocean AB, Ocean Harvesting Technology AB, Minesto, Wavetube and Waves4Power. Minesto develops a marine current technology, Deep Green, which resembles an underwater kite with a wing and a turbine. It moves swiftly in an 8-shaped trajectory in the current. A ¼ scale prototype was deployed in 2013 in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, and is currently undergoing extensive longtime sea trials. The next step for Deep Green is the installation of the first commercial scale installation, a 0.5 MW power plant off the coast, in Wales, in 2017. The installation in Wales will be successively extended to a 10 MW (20 power plants) array which will eventually deliver power to over 8000 Welsh households in 2019.
The installation site is located at Holyhead Deep, Wales. They have received funding from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government and KIC Innoenergy. Minesto has recently registered on First North at NASDAQ Stockholm.
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CorPower Ocean AB has developed a Wave Energy Converter, inspired by the pumping principles ofthe human heart. Together with the Norweigan University NTNU, a new phase control technique has been developed and applied inside the buoy, which has reduced costs. CorPower has secured funding from KIC Innoenergy and Wave Energy Scotland for a dry rig testing phase in Stockholm where the performance will be verified. This will be followed by ocean testing of a half scale prototype at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) test site in Scotland in 2017. The demonstration project in the ocean is partly financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. Development, manufacturing and testing of the prototype is performed by a consortium including CorPower Ocean AB (Stockholm), Iberdrola Engineering (Glasgow) and WavEC Offshore Renewables (Lisbon). KTH (Stockholm) and NTNU (Trondheim) are involved as scientific partners.
The installation will take place in early 2016. The project will be performed in cooperation with Siemens, NKT cables, Seaflex, Blueorbis and Runde Environment Centre. The wave energy converter will be connected to the shore based power grid via subsea cable. |
 Minesto's marine current technology |
