Wave power from Fred. Olsen

Next year Fred. Olsen will build a wave-power plant on Karmøy. On the quiet, he has developed a new technology for platform-based wave power and predicts that this could become an important new industry for Norway.

Article by Alf Ole Ask, Brevik

Guaranteed.

Driving force and godmother: Fred. Olsen had the idea for this type of wave-power plant, and yesterday, Thorhild Widvey, Minister of Petroleum and Energy, baptised the research platform that will be used to develop the technology. It all happened in Brevik.
Photo: Olav Olsen

Simple technology: The research platform was built in three months. The waves set the red “eggs” in motion and the energy they capture is converted into electricity. Photo: Olav Olsen

The Buldra project

Buldra has been built to a scale of about 1:3 and will be a research rig for experiments on wave power. It will lie outside Brevik.

Next year, the first full-size platform-based wave-power plant will be built in plastic/fibre-glass composite. It will have an operational lifetime of 15 years.

The aim is to deliver electricity at a price of 22 øre/kWh. The capacity of each platform will be 2.52 MW, enough to supply about 600 households, and about the same as a wind turbine.

The following organisations have collaborated with Fred. Olsen: Brevik Engineering, ABB, Dsc Engineering, Det norske Veritas, MARINTEK/SINTEF, Brdr. Aa, Heimdals, NTNU and the University of Oslo.

“We should really have kept this secret a bit longer, but that was impossible, you know. We can’t tow this thing around the fjord without saying what it is”.

Shipping magnate Fred. Olsen points to the newly baptised “Buldra”, a little “offshore platform” built in fibre-glass. But “Buldra” is not going to drill for oil or gas. What it will do is generate electricity from wave power.

Yesterday, Fred. Olson was able to present his own idea, which he predicts could become an important new Norwegian industry. The “Buldra” research platform is one third of the size of a real platform, and yesterday it was baptised by Thorhild Widney, Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy. The name “Buldra” has traditions in Fred. Olsen’s shipping company, though he refuses to go into any more detail.

Beach-ball technology
To put it simply, between the legs of the platform are a number of large balls or plastic “eggs”. These are moved up and down by the waves, and the energy that they capture in this way is converted into electricity. It has cost somewhere between 10 and 20 million kroner to develop the platform, and it was Fred. Olsen himself who had the idea, has been the driving force behind it, and financed everything.

Such platforms can be located out at sea, at any depth. The aim is to build the first commercial platform outside Karmøy as early as next year. The fact that this is also the Minister’s home town is purely accidental, said the gentlemen who presented the platform.

“The Danes have created a major industry from wind power, which employs some 20,000 people in that country. Wave power is more stable than wind power, though it is less stable than hydropower. We have a long ice-free coast which will allow us to generate a lot of wave power”, Olsen emphasised yesterday.

In the background, Frederic Hauge, leader of (environmental organisation) Bellona, stood and nodded. “This is a very exciting project. I am proud of having been able to cooperate with a man like Fred Olsen”, he said.

Building on a large scale
An application has already been sent to the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration (NVE ) to build the first commercial system. The aim is to have the first platform on station outside Karmøy some time in 2005. By 2007, it will have three more platforms for company. Project manager Tore Gulli compares the set of platforms with a wind-power farm.

“We are building these platforms in plastic-treated fibreglass. This keeps down the price and makes construction easier than if they had been built in steel. The expect that the four platforms that we will be putting in position off Karmøy between 2005 and 2007 will cost NOK 30 million each. This is simpler and cheaper than steel”, he says.

However, there are challenges. The aim is to deliver electricity at a price of 22 øre per kilowatt hour, but there is still some way to go before that price can be reached. The test platform will show how far they are from the goal. Another important challenge will be to bring the power ashore from the platform.

Olsen is keen to see the state put more money into wave-power research. Two billion kroner have been set aside for research on gas-fired power stations. The state-financed Enova foundation has promised NOK 30 million towards construction of the four platforms off Karmøy, but this will not be enough if Norway is to become a wave-power nation.

“Obviously, the authorities will have to consider the possibility of offering more support for this sort of research”, said the Minister diplomatically yesterday.

“There is another side to this coin, too”, says Olsen suddenly in the middle of his visions of a new industry.

“What might that be?”

“Well, we don’t have to work any more. Oil has made us a bit lazy. I remember that there were more “guts” before”, he says, then looks at my tape-recorder and bursts out, “No, you’ll have to turn that thing off now. I won’t say any more about that”.

Published January 28, 2005