Highest capacity wave power installation ever

The highest capacity wave power installation was the Aguçadoura Wave Farm, which operated in the Atlantic Ocean near Póvoa de Varzim in northern Portugal between 23 September and 1 November 2008. The facility, which comprised three Pelamis P-750 wave energy converters, had a total installed capacity of 2.25 MW. This pilot project was abandoned after only five weeks of operation due to the financial collapse of its main backer Babcock & Brown, an Australian investment and advisory firm.

The Aguçadoura Wave Farm was the largest of many short-lived projects that have tried to advance wave energy power generation to the point of commercial viability. The snake-like, multi-segmented Pelamis generators (which used a "surface attenuator" design) worked well in tests, but the company struggled to persuade potential investors that they could be operated in such a harsh environment in a cost-effective way. Pelamis went into administration in 2014, and its designs now belong to Wave Energy Scotland, a publicly owned technological development organization.

There are several other wave energy projects that are sometimes described as having a higher installed capacity, but these figures are the result of confusion between real-world installations and projections for planned future improvements or expansions.