Abstract
The Milford Haven Wave Dragon Pre-Commercial Demonstrator is a floating slack moored wave energy converter with a rated capacity of 7MW. The demonstrator device will be located 2 - 3 miles off the southwest Wales coast, off St Ann’s Head, northwest of Milford Haven, on an area of approximately 0.25 km2. The deployment of the 7 MW Wave Dragon device is the largest undertaking of wave energy deployment to date, and consists of one single device. Unlike other wave energy converters, the Wave Dragon can be scaled up with relative ease compared to multi-MW devices. The first objective of the project is to prove the feasibility of installing and grid connecting the device at commercial scale, with the intention of undertaking tests and verifying performance for a period of up to five years. The intention would then be to commercialise the development of multiple devices to be deployed further offshore as part of a wave farm or array. The second objective of the project is to generate clean electricity from a renewable source of energy. The device is intended to be tested for three to five years, and then removed and the site decommissioned. This demonstrator project has been linked to a further development of a 77MW wave energy farm in the Celtic Sea following the successful demonstrator testing. The demonstration project is being supported by the Welsh Assembly under the Objective 1 initiative and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) has been supporting the efforts of the project over the last few years. The Welsh Demonstrator project will also host an EC research and development project funded under the Framework Programme 6. Wave Dragon Wales Ltd is backed by KP Renewables Plc who is providing the required co-funding to deliver the project. Wave Dragon is the offshore wave energy technology that has endured one of the most extensive consecutive testing periods: “A 1:4.5 scale prototype launched in 2003 was the world’s first offshore grid-connected wave energy conversion device. Deployed off the coast of Denmark at Nissum Bredning, this test unit has accumulated over 20,000 hours of experience supplying electricity to domestic homes” (www.wavedragon.net)