Just recently, the Wave Hub Project off the coast of Cornwall received the official go-ahead from the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency). Already designated as the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area, the government will invest £30 million in the above project in the area. The European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme also announced its investments worth £20 million in Wave Hub that promises to generate 20 megawatts as the initial maximum capacity, further scalable to 50 megawatts.
About the Project:
The Wave Hub Project is the UK’s first offshore facility to demonstrate the potential of wave energy. What makes it groundbreaking is the testing and installation facility that doesn’t limit itself it to geographical boundaries. Rather, it has the entire coastal sea area with grid connection and planning consent where arrays and devices can be operated over several years. A sub-station at Hayle protrudes cables that are taken across sea beds and sand dunes to a mooring area, eight kilometers away from it. Initially, this system will operate at 11kv and it can be upgraded to 33kv.
It provides the developers with the option to test and work with four different technologies at any one time. The year 2010 onwards, the project will bifurcate itself into leases running for five years. It will ask the contributors to enter into a power purchase agreement based on the strength of incoming waves.
It might go on to create 1,800 plus jobs across the South West and put the region on world’s energy map as the center for wave and tidal energy.
Image Source: Daily Mail