Wave-players-swell-connection, page-9

I think a few sizable holders are getting frustrated and jumping ship with the yearly losses as the trigger... im not one of the, though.

The big thing to remember is that there is a sizable technology switch between CETO 5 and 6, so figures for 5 might not be relevant.

CETO 6 will use (from what I've read) closed loop turbines housed inside the bouys and send electricity back to land. This is very different from 5 which had high pressure lines and a much larger turbine setup on land.

Why have they moved to the wavepod design? I can think of a few pros and cons.

Pros:

Electrical cables are lighter, more flexible and easier to lay compared to high pressure pipes.

Scalability is likely to be better, depending on how it plumbs into the grid. Just buy another wavepod and plug it in.

Fault tolerance might also be better, at the least it would be easier.

Comparatively low land requirements. No need to have a big chunk of prime coastal land to place your turbines.


Cons:

Reduced efficiency from using aa larger number of small turbines.

Land purchase aside, upfront equipment costs are likely to be higher, though installation would be cheaper.

Maintenence of generators would be harder, though retrieval of boys has been well tested so it might not be that much of an issue.

Ultimately the figures that matter are dollars per KW at commission and ongoing dollars per MWh. I haven't yet seen those, but it might be protected under what is going on in the UK.