Giant Sea Snake Renewable Electricity Generation

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The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter is a technology that uses the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The machine is made up of connected sections which flex and bend as waves pass; it is this motion which is used to generate electricity.
Developed by the Scottish company Pelamis Wave Power (formerly Ocean Power Delivery), it was the world’s first commercial scale machine to generate electricity into the grid from offshore wave energy and the first to be used in commercial wave farm project. The first full scale prototype was successfully installed and generated electricity to the UK grid at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Scotland in August 2004. The first wave farm consisting of three Pelamis machines and located off the coast of Portugal, was officially opened in September 2008. It has an installed capacity of 2.25MW, enough to meet the average electricity demand of more than 1,500 Portuguese homes.

The pelamis device consists of a series of semi submerged cylindrical sections linked by hinged joints. The wave induced relative motion of these sections is resisted by hydraulic rams which pump high pressure oil through hydraulic motors via smoothing accumulators. The hydraulic motors drive electrical generators to produce electricity. Power from all the joints is fed down a single umbilical cable to a junction on the sea bed. Several devices can be connected together and linked to shore through a single seabed cable.

See how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0mzrbfzUpM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcTNkoyvLFs