Waveplam

South West RDA announced that the installation of the Wave Hub off the coast of Cornwall in South West England will be delayed until spring 2010, one year later than expected. This announcement was made in April of 2008. According to Nick Harrington, general manager for the Wave Hub project at the South West RDA, the team hoped to have the project in the water late in 2009 but as a result of the unexpectedly high tenders for the supply of the equipment and installation, the South West RDA decided to push back its installation to Spring 2010. The additional time will now be used to review the procurement process and the detailed design to establish the most cost effective way of delivering the project.

"Although we believe that there is room for savings, we are also conscious that the economic environment is quite challenging. The $100+ cost per barrel of oil earlier this year has led to a boom in oil and gas exploration which increased substantially the cost of the equipment needed to install Wave Hub. Volatile markets have also seen significant increases in the cost of copper which has increased the cost of the cable that will be laid between Wave Hub and the mainland”, he explained.

The Wave Hub device is intended to work as a “socket” where wave energy developers would be able to plug their technology in an area of sea measuring four kilometres by two kilometres with approximately 50 metre deep waters. Up to 30 wave energy devices can be deployed at the Wave Hub generating up to 20MW of electricity for an estimated 7,500 houses in the region, corresponding to 3% of the present domestic electricity needs in Cornwall. This project could create 1,800 jobs and inject £560 million in the UK economy over 25 years. “We remain committed to Wave Hub and will explore all the available options to realise these economic and environmental benefits", Nick Harrington concluded.

News at: http://www.wavehub.co.uk/

Illustration by Industrial Art Studio - www.ind-art.co.uk