This visual poem was published in the journal of Cultural Anthropology, as part of their special collection ‘Our Lives with Electric Things’. It was handwritten in honour and grief at the scrapping of Pelamis, the world’s first on-grid wave energy converter, which was tested at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, supplying grid electricity for the first time on 15 August 2004.
Reference: Watts, Laura (2017) Pelamis Wave Energy Machine: A Museum Exhibit, in Carbon, Barbara, Watts, Laura and Parish, Erin. “Our Electric H₂O.” Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1274-our-electric-h-o
“Pelamis has been one of the icons
of the marine renewables industry.”
“The waves will keep pounding…
the world is still using fossil fuels…
we know marine energy will have its day.”
–Neil Kermode, European Marine Energy Centre, on the occasion of Pelamis Wave Power going into administration.
This video gives some of the history and achievements of Pelamis.