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Grant for Wave Hub Wave Farm

The world's largest wave farm project Wave Hub receives 75% grant


Artists impression of the Wave Hub

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.

Pelamis wave power generator for Wave Hub

The first wave power generators installed will include Pelamis (1) (pictured above - already operational off North Portugal coast), and MRC1000 (pictured below) which is being developed by ORECon (2).

OREcon wave power generator

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.

Wave Hub Buoy

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 (3) by almost 25,000 tonnes per year.

South West RDA (4) 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 (5) is wavehub.co.uk. The press release (6) from the SWRDA is here.

Web Link References

(1) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Pelamis-Wave-Energy-Project.htm
(2) http://www.orecon.com/
(3) http://www.reuk.co.uk/carbon.htm
(4) http://www.southwestrda.org.uk/
(5) http://www.wavehub.co.uk
(6) http://www.southwestrda.org.uk/news/release.asp?releaseid=1969

Article from REUK.co.uk:
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Grant-for-Wave-Hub-Wave-Farm.htm
Published: 27th April 2007
© REUK 2009