Friday 21 May 2010

Wave Hub on course for big splash

Wave Hub on course for big splash

Wave hub is a £42m project that will evaluate the range of wave power devices due to become a common sight off our coastline in the coming decades.

Situated 10 miles off the north Cornish coast it's basically a giant socket that various wave machines can be plugged into and then the hub will relay the electricity they generate back to the National Grid.

Funded by the South West Regional Development agency it's predicted the project could create 1800 jobs and inject £560m in the UK economy over 25 years.

The hub will be connected to the National Grid via a massive armoured underwater power cable that's being built in Hartlepool. The hub socket will sit on an assembly which is under construction, this a rigid steel structure, the size of a van that's placed on the seabed in 50 metres of water and be covered in several metres of rock.

Guy Lavender, Wave Hub's general manager at the South West RDA, said,"After seven years of planning it's hugely satisfying to see the cable and hub actually taking shape.

"We're on course for deployment this summer and extensive testing will take place before we welcome our first wave energy devices at Wave Hub, which we expect in 2011.

"The announcement in March by the Crown Estate of the first commercial licenses for wave energy deployment off the north coast of Scotland makes Wave Hub more relevant than ever because we can provide the industry with a grid-connected test facility on a scale not seen before."

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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