Where there’s Muck there’s WaveNET

Marine Harvest’s latest salmon farm off the Isle of Muck is due to be stocked with smolts this summer – and it will generate its own electricity. A device called WaveNET has already undergone preparatory trials at the dry dock at Kishorn Port. Albatern, the company that developed the wave technology system, based it on a group of energy converter units, known as Squids, that are flexibly connected to each other while remaining free to move. Together, they form a ‘wave net’ that harnesses power – hence the name.

Each individual Squid unit has 6 pumping modules which move in response to the circular pressure field within the wave. The pumps drive a hydraulic generator system that produces electricity. At the moment, they are running at a minimal output of 7.5kW each, but this will be scaled up in decimal jumps, first to 75kW then to 750kW. It’s a flexible, highly innovative system that does not, of course, need to be associated with a fish farm. Something for Arran to think about?