Grant for Wave Hub Wave Farm
Grant For Wave Hub Wave Farm
The world's largest wave farm project Wave Hub receives 75% grant
wave | news
Wave Hub, the world's largest
wave farm planned off the coast of Cornwall has received a 21.5 million pound grant from the
regional development agency (RDA). Amounting to over 75% of the total cost of the project, the award of this grant means that sufficient funding has been secured to commission
Wave Hub as soon as 2008. The
South West of England RDA has already applied to the UK goverment for planning permission and a decision is expected in May 2007.
Wave Hub
Wave Hub will be used to test up to 40 prototype
wave energy machines. The
hub is described as being like an
electric socket into which different wave power generators can be plugged. A range of wave energy machines will be tested to see how much power they can generate and how well they work and cope operating out at sea.
The first
wave power generators installed will include
Pelamis (pictured above - already operational off North Portugal coast), and
MRC1000 (pictured below) which is being developed by
ORECon.
Wave Power Electricity
The hub, to be situated on the seabed 10 miles off the Cornish coast will be connected by a 15 mile undersea cable
to a new electricity substation connected to the
National Grid. The RDA believe that over 170 jobs will be created by the project and up to £75 million will be generated for the local economy over the 25 year project lifetime.
Up to
20 MW of electricity could be generated, enough to provide around 3% of Cornwall's domestic needs. That would reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by almost 25,000 tonnes per year.
South West RDA spokesman Stephen Peacock said of the project, "
Wave Hub has the potential to make an enormous contribution to tackling climate change and we believe it could transform the wave technology industry."
Wave Hub Links
The official
Wave Hub Website is
wavehub.co.uk. The
press release from the SWRDA is here.
Article Last Modified: 08:42, 27th Apr 2007Comment on this Article
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