Full-scale Data Assessment in OWC Pico Plant

After being idle for a period of several years after its first commissioning in 1999, the European OWC pilot plant on the island of Pico in the Azores has been reactivated by 2005 and initial tests have been performed since then. The refurbishment, co-ordinated by the Wave Energy Centre in Portugal, started in 2004, and was supported by National funding under a new Portuguese funding scheme for scientific pilot projects (PRIME/DEMTEC). The activities included the complete replacement of the degraded electrical equipment and refurbishments of the existing mechanical components. This paper describes the Pico plant monitoring during the full-scale demonstration from September 2005 to October 2006 and discusses the data and results obtained so far.