Wavegen Limited (later Voith Hydro Wavegen Limited) was a

wave energy Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power is a wave energy converter (WEC). Waves are generated by wind p ...

company based in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It was founded in 1990 by Allan Thomson. It was sold to

Voith Hydro The Voith Group is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Hei ...

in 2005, and they closed the company in 2013.

History

In 2000, Wavegen became the first company in the world to connect a commercial scale wave energy device (

LIMPET Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called "limpets" descended indep ...

) to the grid on the Scottish island of

Islay Islay ( ; gd, Ìle, sco, Ila) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The isl ...

. The LIMPET (Land Installed Marine Powered Energy Transformer) is a shoreline device which produces power from an oscillating water column. In May 2005, Wavegen was bought by

, a subsidiary of

Voith The Voith Group is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Hei ...

. Together with the Faroese power company SEV, Wavegen had planned to develop the SeWave wave energy plant project in Nípanin in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. It was also the developer of the

Siadar Wave Energy Project The Siadar Wave Power Station (also known as Siadar Wave Energy Project or SWEP) was a proposed 4 Megawatt, MW wave farm off the shore of Siadar Bay, in Isle of Lewis, Lewis, Scotland. The £30 million project, was to be built by Wave ...

. On 17 November 2011, Wavegen put into operation the world's first commercial full life Limpet wave power plant. The 300-kW plant was sold to ''Ente Vasco de la Energía'' in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. In March 2013 Voith Hydro decided to close down Wavegen choosing to concentrate on tidal power projects.

References

{{Sustainable development in Scotland Wave power Organisations based in Inverness Companies based in Highland (council area) Electric power companies of Scotland Renewable energy companies of Scotland Renewable resource companies established in 1990 1990 establishments in Scotland 2005 mergers and acquisitions Renewable resource companies disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in Scotland

History

See also

References