Wave Hub has created the world\u2019s largest test site for wave energy technology by building a grid-connected socket on the seabed 16km off the coast of Cornwall in South West England, to which wave power devices can be connected and their performance evaluated.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday the complete system underwent its first full test when it was connected to the grid network via a new substation that has been built at Hayle, where Wave Hub\u2019s 33kV cable comes ashore.<\/p>\n
Wave Hub\u2019s general manager Guy Lavender, speaking on Tuesday at the RenewableUK annual conference and exhibition in Glasgow said, \u2018We\u2019ve been continually testing the integrity of the whole system during the installation process but yesterday was the first time it was fully energised and plugged in to the grid, and I\u2019m delighted to say that it went without a hitch.<\/p>\n
\u2018From today the system will be permanently energised and monitored, so Wave Hub is well and truly open for business.\u2019<\/p>\n
The penultimate stage of Wave Hub\u2019s installation was expected to be completed yesterday, when the last of 177 concrete \u2018mattresses\u2019 is laid on top of the subsea cable. The 25km cable is buried under the seabed to around 5km offshore and thereafter has been covered with 91,000 tons of rock. The mattresses are being laid at regular intervals on top of the rock to ensure the cable is secure.<\/p>\n
Next week a marker buoy will be installed to record Wave Hub\u2019s position, and that will be the final part of the physical installation.<\/p>\n
The \u00a342 million Wave Hub project has been developed by the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency) and is a cornerstone of its strategy to develop a world class marine energy industry in South West England and the UK.<\/p>\n
Guy Lavender added, \u2018There has been some speculation about Wave Hub’s future given that the South West RDA is due to be abolished by March 2012. But the future of Wave Hub and its ongoing operation are not in doubt, and the project is fully funded as we continue to seek commercial customers.<\/p>\n
\u2018What we don’t yet know is who will own the asset when the RDA is gone, and that is being discussed. But that has no impact on Wave Hub’s continued role as a vital facility for the development of the wave energy industry in the UK and overseas.\u2019<\/p>\n
Wave Hub\u2019s first customer will be Ocean Power Technologies, using its PowerBuoy wave energy converter.<\/p>\n
Wave Hub consists of a 12 ton steel chamber on the seabed in 55m of water some 16km offshore, connected to land via an armoured subsea cable. The chamber splits the main subsea cable into four 300m \u2018tails\u2019, each of which serves one of the four berths available at Wave Hub.<\/p>\n
The project holds a 25 year lease on an 8 sq\/km area of sea, and each berth measures 1km by 2km. The Wave Hub site boasts one of the best wave climates in Europe and the system has a capacity of 20MW, but is designed to be scaled up to 50MW in the future.<\/p>\n
Wave Hub is being funded with \u00a312.5m from the South West RDA, \u00a320m from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme and \u00a39.5m from the UK government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The pioneering Wave Hub marine energy project has been \u2018plugged in\u2019 for the first time since its installation over the summer and is officially open for business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-key-deals"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1919,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maritimejournal.com\/get-set-for-workboat-2050\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}