In the emerging renewable energy sector there is no time for any business to rest on its laurels. This is certainly the case for Pelamis Wave Power (PWP), inventors and makers of the Pelamis wave energy generator. Despite being arguably the UK's most successful marine energy company, on the basis that it is currently the only one to have sold its product, it is still learning about Pelamis through co-ordinated and extensive testing. In October 2010 it began a three-year test programme for its second generation model, the P2, to evaluate its performance in the North Sea 2km west of the Orkneys, under the watchful eye of the European Marine Energy Centre on the Orkney mainland. This follows a decade of research that led to the first Pelamis model, three of which formed the world's first wave farm in 2008, in Portuguese waters. Andrew Scott, PWP's senior project development manager, says the deliberate approach is the best way to ensure what is quite a different machine acts as it should. "There have been substantial changes in terms of the engineering," he says.
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