IEEE Spectrum August, 2009 - 10

us $370 mIllIoN

Estimated cost of converting drawings and software from the u.s. shuttle program
from English units to the International system of units, or sI. Because Nasa will use
legacy designs in its next generation of shuttles and it would cost too much to convert them, the agency says it plans to design the
new craft using English units as well.

sCottish sea PoWer:
scotland has the potential
to contribute 25 percent of
Europe's tidal power.
photo: earth-vision.biz/Wave Dragon

£10 Million
Sea Power Challenge
scotland sets terms for saltire prize

cotland is finalizing
the terms of a contest
in wave and tidal
energy that takes inspiration
from the prize that prompted
Lindbergh's transatlantic
flight in 1927 and successors
like the X Prizes and the
Virgin Earth Challenge. The
aim of the contest is to make
ocean energy more than
just a technical curiosity
and, not so incidentally, give
the country's inventors and
entrepreneurs a boost in
an area where they have
some obvious advantages-
suitable geography, friendly
government policies, and a
head start in engineering.
Dubbed the Saltire Prize,
after the cross that is the
central element in Scotland's
flag, the prize of £10 million
(about US $16 million) will
be awarded in five years.
www.spectrum.ieee.org

Contestants will need the time
to devise and demonstrate
their technology because, by
all accounts, Saltire is a very
challenging challenge, so
much so that only a Scottish
company may be able to win it.
"To win the prize," the
rules say, "entrants must
demonstrate, in Scottish
waters, a commercially
viable wave or tidal energy
technology with a minimum
output of 100 gigawatt‑hours
over a two‑year period-using
only the power of the sea. The
winner will be judged to be
the best overall technology
after consideration of cost,
environmental sustainability,
and safety."
Although the final
guidelines won't be released
until the third quarter of
this year, by early July the
contest had already attracted

the interest of more than 100
potential competitors, says
Claire M. Smith, Saltire's
spokesperson. About
30 percent are from the United
States, she reports, and "U.S.
companies have just as much
chance as anyone else."
But Roger Bedard, the lead
ocean‑energy researcher at
the Electric Power Research
Institute, in Palo Alto,
Calif., is skeptical. This is
a prize "that won't be won
by the United States," he
says. Bedard points out that
complex U.S. regulations
do not favor getting new
technology into the water fast,
and that technical challenges
are often underestimated. A
tidal project in New York
City's East River is a case in
point. In the waterway that
connects Long Island Sound
with the city's harbor, the

first turbine blades installed
promptly broke in the
powerful current.
What is more, Bedard
continues, a plant producing
100 GWh for two years is not
small by ocean energy stan‑
dards. Taking into account
the fact that an average plant
would be generating elec‑
tricity at capacity only about
a third of the time, the prize
calls for a tidal facility of
roughly 18 to 20 megawatts.
But the largest plant operat‑
ing at present, in Aguçadoura,
Portugal, is just 2.25 MW. On
reflection, says Bedard, "I bet
nobody is going to do it."
Some of those that come
closest will almost certainly
be Scottish. The Portuguese
plant was built by Pelamis
Wave Power, in Edinburgh,
a world leader. Meanwhile,
ScottishPower Renewables is
getting set this month to ask
the Scottish and Irish assem‑
blies for approval to develop
three 1‑ to 20‑MW sites, with
turbines developed in Norway,
according to Scotland's Herald.
The European Marine Energy
Center is located amid the
country's Orkney Islands.
The Scots are shooting to
get 31 percent of their energy
from renewables by 2011 and
50 percent by 2050, which
are among the world's most
ambitious targets. Their
country has the potential
to generate 25 percent
of Europe's tidal energy
and 10 percent of its wave
energy, says Saltire's Smith.
"Scotland is a small country
that likes to punch above its
weight," she told a United
Nations conference in June.
-William Sweet

august 2009 * IEEE spEctrum * Na

http://www.earth-vision.biz/Wave http://www.spectrum.ieee.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum August, 2009