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back to article Scotland to float 'world's biggest' wave farm

Scotland will enjoy the "world's biggest wave energy farm" after Scottish ministers agreed to fund a major installation at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney. The £13m package will allow further deployment of Leith-based Ocean Power Delivery's Pelamis system, one of which is already installed and tested at the site, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When did the Greens get elected?

    £13m in generators powering 1500 homes.

    To generate an IRR of ~20% each home must pay at least £155 in electricity bills a month, every month, for 14 years. This assumes that the facility costs absolutely nothing to run or maintain - that every dime paid back in bills is pure profit.

    Just for laughs, assuming the plant costs 10% of its purchase price per year to run and will tolerate an internal return of 0%, the monthly minimum is a little over £120. To get that IRR of 20% the bill would be roughly £230.

    Even were I to assume that all power generation for those 'green hills' of England were 100% nationalized and thus immune to factors such as IRR, that is some mighty expensive "free power". More than double what I pay for my nice fission generated stuff.

    What the heck does all this mean? It means the image of the frugal Scotsman is as watertight as the Graf Spee.

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  2. Chad H.

    Surfs up?

    I'm suprised this project hasnt been delayed by some hair brained government report into how tidal plants affect local surf conditions, and thus the surfing industry.

    (yes, I know it's scotland, which has no real surfing industry, and it would have no probable affect, its called Bureaucracy peoples...)

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  3. kev conroy

    Who let the Yanks Out?

    £13 mill for power generation, but the decommissioning costs are soo much cheaper than nuclear. Post Chernobyl, people are a lot happier with wave farms next door than having a nuclear power plant or god forbid, a waste dump aka "storage facilty".

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