cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/23384142

More info on this at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelamis_Wave_Energy_Converter .

The company was bought by E.ON and the project was killed. At that time, there were working 450 Kilowatt prototypes (see the video). 450 Kilowatt is a power volume that took wind power plants over three decades (about from 1970 to 2000) to achieve.

The technology was then apparently copied by a Chinese company.

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[–] 1 point 10 months ago

The converters in the video have a nominal capacity of 450 Kilowatt. For an experimental plant at this development stage, this is huge. It took wind power plants over three decades of high-tech development to become larger.

Because they needed to wait until semiconductor technology could support high-power frequency converters. Note how large wind turbines arrived at virtually the same time as VVVF drives on trains, and ships, and everything else. Unlike hydro, wind turbines can't efficiently generate at constant speed in widely varying conditions.

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