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Wave Hub successfully deployed on ocean floor
06 September 2010
The South West RDA’s (Regional Development Agency) pioneering
Wave Hub marine energy project has been safely installed on the
seabed following a delicate operation to lower the 12-tonne hub
into 55 metres of water, 16 kilometres offshore.
Wave Hub is creating the world’s largest test site for wave
energy technology by building a grid-connected socket on the seabed
off the coast of Cornwall in South West England, to which wave
power devices can be connected and their performance evaluated.
The £42 million project has been developed by the South West RDA
and is a cornerstone of its strategy to develop a world class
marine energy industry in South West England and the UK.
Wave Hub was lowered to the seabed using a crane on board the
cable laying ship Nordica and touched down at 15.12 on Friday
September 3. Over the last two days the hub’s four 300m ‘tails’
have been positioned on the seabed and later today the vessel
Tideway Rollingstone will start to place the first of 80,000 tonnes
of rock on top of the 25km cable connecting Wave Hub to the shore
to hold it in place.
News of Wave Hub’s successful installation was welcomed by UK
Science Minister David Willetts, who said: “It is fantastic news
that Wave Hub has now been deployed on the ocean floor – this
ground breaking project will strengthen the UK’s position at the
forefront of the wave energy sector. The UK is already leading the
way, with 25 per cent of the world’s wave and tidal technologies
being developed here. This is a huge opportunity for UK business –
the sector could be worth £2 billion by 2050 and it has the
potential to create up to 16,000 jobs by 2040.”
UK Climate Change Minister Greg Barker also congratulated the
Wave Hub team on their achievement, saying: “The UK’s massive
marine energy resources have the potential to supply millions of
homes with renewable power, giving us security of supply and
cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Wave Hub will fulfil a crucial
role that complements our existing test facilities in the UK and
will help companies bring forward the development of marine
energy.”
The RDA’s Wave Hub General Manager Guy Lavender said: “Seeing
Wave Hub lowered into the water was the culmination of more than
seven years’ hard work by hundreds of people and the fact that it
was designed and built in this country is testimony to the skills
and experience that the UK already has in the fledgling marine
renewables industry.
“Wave Hub will be on the seabed for the next 25 years, helping
the world gain invaluable knowledge about how we tap the vast
energy potential of our oceans in the pursuit of clean, abundant,
renewable energy and cementing the UK’s position at the forefront
of this green power revolution.”
Maria McCaffery MBE, chief executive of Renewable UK, the UK’s
leading renewable energy association, said: “Wave Hub is a
tremendously exciting development, and a truly world-leading
project. It will focus global industry attention on the UK and put
the South West firmly on the map in terms of marine energy research
and development.
“With projects such as Wave Hub, and a solid financial support
mechanism, as a country we now have a unique opportunity to
strengthen the lead in the sector and start rolling out the next
generation of wave and tidal energy devices. These will make
reliable and plentiful energy from the sea a reality within the
next 10 years.”
Wave Hub is connected to the shore via a 25km, 1,300-tonne
subsea cable that has been laid over the last few weeks from the
beach at Hayle on the north Cornwall coast out to the Wave Hub
site.
With the hub on the seabed, specialist contractor CTC Marine
spent the weekend ensuring that the hub’s four 300-metre cable
‘tails’ which serve the four berths at Wave Hub are in the right
position, and have surveyed the entire length of the cable.
Wave Hub is being funded with £12.5 million from the South West
RDA, £20 million from the European Regional Development Fund
Convergence Programme and £9.5 million from the UK government.
ENDS
For more information contact Jason Clark, 01208-77900, jason.clarky@dca-pr.co.uk
Notes to editors:
Images: of Wave Hub being deployed can be viewed here: twitpic.com/photos/wavehub and
higher resolution versions are available by emailing jason.clark@dca-pr.co.uk
Film: two short film clips showing Wave Hub being lowered
through the water and touching down on the seabed can be viewed
here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Ui6aLyeRU
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSLIbq1oIjo%20
You can follow Wave Hub’s progress on Twitter (@wavehub).
The South West RDA works for and promotes a modern, stronger and
more resilient economy across South West England. Our work involves
creating better jobs, successful businesses, more prosperous
cities, towns and villages within an economy that uses less carbon
and will still be thriving in 20, 50 and 100 years time. Find out
more at www.southwestrda.org.uk
Wave Hub is a major marine renewables infrastructure project
that will create an electrical ‘socket’ on the seabed in some 50
metres of water around 16kms (10 miles) off the coast of Cornwall
in South West England and connected to the National Grid via a
subsea cable. Groups of wave energy devices will be connected to
Wave Hub and float on or just below the surface of the sea to
assess how well they work and how much power they generate before
being commercially produced and deployed. There are four berths
available at Wave Hub, each covering two square kilometres. Wave
Hub will have an initial maximum capacity of 20MW (enough
electricity to power approximately 7,000 homes) but has been
designed with the potential to scale up to 50MW in the future. The
first wave energy devices are expected to be deployed in 2011.
Legal agreements have been signed with leading renewable energy
company Ocean Power Technologies Limited to take the first berth at
Wave Hub using its PowerBuoy wave energy converter. Images of
PowerBuoy can be downloaded at www.flickr.com/photos/southwestengland.
Discussions are ongoing with other device developers.
JDR Cable Systems Ltd manufactured the armoured 25 km (16 mile)
33,000 volt cable and hub assembly for Wave Hub at its factory in
Hartlepool in a contract worth £7.6 million. The cable has been
made in one continuous length and is made up of six copper cores,
48 fibre optic cables, two layers of steel wire armouring and an
outer polymer sheath. It is 16 centimetres in diameter and weighs
1,300 tonnes. The hub weighs around 12 tonnes. It splits the main
cable linking it to the National Grid on shore into four 300m cable
‘tails’ to which groups of wave energy devices can be attached and
monitored for how they perform. CTC Marine Projects is carrying out
the installation of the hub and subsea cable on the seabed in a
contract worth around £7 million.
Powermann Ltd of Poole in Dorset is handling the £1 million
onshore electrical works that will connect Wave Hub to the UK’s
National Grid network, and a new electricity sub-station at Hayle
has been built by Dawnus Construction. Offshore contractor Tideway
is responsible for the rock dumping operation.
In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the Convergence Programmes
are made up of European Regional Development Fund (£347 million)
and European Social Fund (£153 million). Convergence Programmes
will run until 2013 and follow the successful Objective One
Programme and prior to that Objective 5b. For further information
see: www.convergencecornwall.com.