14 DAY TRIAL // Ireland's premier electricity utility, ESB (the Electricity Supply Board), says that it has secured funding amounting to €1.3 million ($1.8 million) from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and that it wishes to spend this money on feasibility studies for a wave power farm in Irish waters.
Business Green tells us that, if built, this wave power farm in the waters off the coast of Ireland would be the first of its kind in Europe.
According to the same source, the official name for this project is West Wave. Should it be set in place, the farm will be located off Killard in County Clare.
Information shared with the public says that, apart from the €1.3 million that ESB has obtained for feasibility studies, the folks behind this project also have a list of five firms whose technologies could be used when building the facility.
Should things go according to plan, the bidder that will be entrusted with implementing this process will be announced in 2016, and the facility will be completed by 2018 at the latest.
Commenting on this initiative, Brendan Barry with ESB said that, “West Wave is a critical project for the whole ocean energy business, it needs something like this.”
Furthermore, “We're trying to do this project on the basis that we'll procure the best technology and deploy them. It's a bridging stage between prototypes and development.”