Snake-like buoys showing their energy mettle off Scottish coast

Snake-like buoys sitting off the coast of Scotland have been tested to the point they have proven their reliability, Pelamis Wave Energy said.

Two machines sitting at the European Marine Energy Center in Orkney logged 10,000 hours of grid-connected service this week.

Richard Yemm, chief executive officer at Pelamis, said the achievement was a milestone for the test devices.

"We have not only proven that Pelamis technology works, we have also now shown that it works reliably," he said in a statement Thursday.

Pelamis said the Scottish coast is home to about 18 percent of the estimated 167 gigawatts of wave energy potential in European waters. The company said the machines have churned out on average 280 kilowatts of power every half hour since their installation.

The Scottish government aims to generate the equivalent of 100 percent of its annual electricity consumption through community- and locally-owned renewable energy resources by 2020. As a whole, the European Union aims to generate 20 percent of its energy needs through renewable resources by 2020.