Mainstay Marine Solutions, the British designer, builder and maintainer of workboats and marine energy devices, has won a contract to build a new energy device for a £5.8m scheme in South Wales.
The company will complete the first major stage of an innovative wave energy converter development project on behalf of its client Wave-Tricity.
Stewart Graves, managing director, Mainstay, said: “We have built an enviable reputation for our work on projects in marine energy. It’s the third contract we have won in the second half of 2016. Our dedicated and skilled workforce, which has doubled in the last two years, has been instrumental in our growth and success.”
The contract win continues a successful period for Mainstay, which now employs 80, with 10 per cent of the direct workforce consisting of apprentices. The firm’s turnover has increased by a third, from just under £4m to more than £5m, during the last twelve months.
Wave-Tricity was recently granted a £4m investment from the European Regional Development Fund via the Welsh Government. It will develop and test a new device called the Ocean Wave Rower, which will convert the natural motion of the waves into clean energy.
The device will be deployed in the Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zones, a wave energy site off the Pembrokeshire coastline, for two years. This trial, which is scheduled for sea trials in February 2017, will help produce a commercially viable, real world wave energy converter.
By Anne-Marie Causer
