This article is from page 4 of the 2008-01-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
SPANISH Point is set to become one of the world’s leading sites for the production of wave energy following the launch of the Ocean Energy Ini- tiative last week.
The new initiative, which guaran- tees a price of €0.22 for each KW hour of ‘blue’ energy, has made Ireland the world’s most attractive market for the generation of wave energy.
Spanish Point was identified by the Irish Marine Institutes as one of Ire-
land’s top four sites for the produc- tion of wave energy. Indeed, it was short-listed as a possible site for the creation of Ireland’s first test facility for wave energy.
“Places like Spanish Point are now going to get more and more attractive because investors will be able to see exactly what price they will be able to get for the energy in the long term,” said Andrew Parish, of pioneering wave energy company, Wavebob.
“Investors will be able to go into Spanish Point, examine the prevalent wave strength and predict with cer-
tainty exactly what revenue they will be able to make. This will make it much easier to get financial backing for large-scale projects.”
“The real key is that we will have market stability. This makes it attrac- tive for developers such as ourselves to invest and it also makes it easier for us finance major projects.”
With a host of new wave energy generators at the prototype stage, the wave energy market is expected to boom over the next 10 years.
“We are relying more than 90 per cent in Ireland on fossil fuels. So by
having this tariff for renewable en- ergy, it encourages more alternative clean sources of energy into the mar- ket, which will actually make energy cheaper in the long run,” continued Mr Parish.
“Fossil fuels are going to get more and more expensive as time goes by, and wave energy is going to become a reality.
“Not only will Irish companies be looking at developing sites like Spanish Point, but international com- panies will be there too. It 1s very at- tractive for them.”