Wave power station. Limpet 500 (Land Installed Marine Power Energy Transformer) was opened in 2000 and is the world's first commercial-scale wave power station. Limpet generates 500 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 300 homes. It was built on the coast of Islay, a Scottish Hebridean island. As a wave moves into this partly- submerged hollow concrete chamber (upper-left behind wave spray), air is forced out through a turbine-containing blowhole in its rear. When the wave falls, air is sucked back through the blowhole. Electricity is generated using a Wells turbine that rotates the same way despite the two- way air flow. Limpet was built by Queens University in Northern Ireland and the Scottish company Wavegen.