Orecon Limited will occupy the fourth berth at Wave Hub, which aims to be operational from August next year.
The company, based in Bodmin in Cornwall, was founded in 2002 as a spin-out business from the University of Plymouth. Last year it succeeded in raising $24 million of private investment for the development of its wave to energy buoy, which can generate enough power for 1,000 homes.
Orecon takes the place of Australian company Oceanlinx which was expected to use Wave Hub. The company has since received a grant from the Australian Government and has decided to make its next deployment in Australian waters.
Wave Hub will be a giant electrical ’socket’ on the seabed, some 10 miles offshore and connected to the National Grid, into which wave energy device developers can plug their devices and carry out pre-commercial testing on a scale not seen before.
It is already being hailed as one of the UK’s flagship renewable energy projects and is one of just six case studies to feature in the Government’s Low Carbon Industrial Strategy which was launched in London last week [March 6] by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, and Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson.
Nick Harrington, Head of Marine Energy at the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA), which is leading the Wave Hub project, said:
This is just the latest exciting development for Wave Hub, which is on course to be built next summer.
We are now tendering for the electrical equipment and sub-sea cable, have agreed a new design that potentially gives us more generating capacity as technology evolves, and have applied for a safety zone around the project.
Orecon is at a crucial stage in developing its technology and we hope Wave Hub will be the springboard to full scale commercialisation.”
David Crisp, chief executive of Orecon, said:
The UK still leads the way in the development of wave energy technology and we have the best wave resources in Europe. Wave Hub will give us the development platform we need to prove our technology to the world and we’re delighted to have been selected as one of the RDA’s partners.
Construction of Wave Hub is expected to start in May 2010 and be completed by August 2010, with the first wave energy devices expected to be deployed in 2011.
Nick Harrington added:
Wave Hub is just part of a much bigger ambition to make South West England the cradle of offshore renewables development, not just in the UK, but the world.
An independent economic impact assessment has calculated that Wave Hub could create 1,800 jobs and inject £560 million in the UK economy over 25 years. Almost 1,000 of these jobs and £332 million could be generated in the South West.
It is hoped that Wave Hub will be successful in securing retrospective funding from the Convergence ERDF Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Addtional information
For more information about Wave Hub contact Jason Clark, on 01208-77900 or via jason.clark@dca-pr.co.uk
For more information about Orecon contact Sue Wolstenholme on 01579-370991 or email sue@ashley-pr.co.uk
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Notes to editors
- The South West RDA leads the development of a sustainable economy, investing to unlock the region’s business potential. It is helping companies respond to the economic crisis and charts a course for recovery. The RDA is developing or expanding initiatives which include: establishing a Business Loan Fund; coordinating the response to large companies in difficulty; preparing for economic recovery.More information can be found at www.southwestrda.org.uk
- The South West RDA is planning to create the world’s first large scale wave energy farm by constructing an electrical ’socket’ on the seabed at a depth of around 50 metres some 10 miles (18.5 km) off Hayle on the Cornwall coast in South West England.
- Called Wave Hub, it will allow developers of wave energy devices to test new wave energy technology. Groups of wave energy devices will be connected to Wave Hub and float on or just below the surface of the sea to assess how well they work and how much power they generate before going into full commercial production.
- Wave Hub will be connected to the National Grid by a 15.5 mile (25 km) cable linked to a new electricity substation at Hayle.
- Four wave device developers are working with the South West RDA on the project, and each will be granted a lease of a sea area of two square kilometres. As well as Orecon the others are Ocean Power Technologies Limited, Fred Olsen Limited and WestWave, a consortium of E.On and Ocean Prospect Limited, using the Pelamis technology of Pelamis Wave Power Ltd.
- Each Orecon buoy contains three wave chambers. A wave chamber is like a bottle with its bottom cut off. The wave chamber stands in the water and as a wave goes by the water level rises then falls in the chamber. As the water rises air is pushed out of the neck of the bottle, as the water level falls air is sucked in. In the neck of the bottle is a wind turbine and the air rushing in and out generates electricity. If the wave chambers are of the correct length relative to the frequency of the incoming waves the movement of the water inside the chamber will resonate (just like an organ pipe) and a greater transfer of energy will occur producing more electrical power. The Orecon buoy contains three chambers of different lengths in order that at least one chamber is always in resonance with the incoming waves, giving the patented technology its name of MRC (multi-resonant chambers). Each chamber has a turbine-generator combination rated at 500kW attached to it.
- The UK Government approved the necessary consents for Wave Hub in 2007.
- The RDA appointed JP Kenny as managing contractor for Wave Hub in November 2008.
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