8:00pm Wednesday 25th January 2012
WAVE power generators like these could become a familiar sight off the Somerset coastline if a green energy company is successful in its latest proposals.
Ecotricity this week announced it is developing a wave power device called Searaser which it believes can efficiently harvest the power of the waves.
The company’s founder, Dale Vince, said: “Our vision is for Britain’s electricity needs to be met entirely from the big three renewable energy sources – the wind, the sun and the sea.
“Until now, the sea has been the least viable of those three energy sources and we believe that Searaser will change all of that.
“We believe Searaser has the potential to produce electricity at a lower cost than any other type energy, not just other forms of renewable energy but all ‘conventional’ forms of energy, too.”
The invention is set to be tested off the coast of Falmouth in Cornwall and hundreds of the machines could be in place around the UK coastline within five years.
Searaser works by using wave energy to pump water up to container tanks before the water is released to a hydro-electric turbine.
The devices, the brainchild of British engineer Alvin Smith, from Dartmouth, protrude about one metre out of the sea.
Ecotricity estimates Searasers at 200 sites could generate enough energy to power about 230,000 homes.
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