February 15, 2006—The South West of England Regional Development Agency (RDA) has chosen three companies as development partners for its proposed $26.2-million Wave Hub project.
The Wave Hub aims to create the world’s first wave energy farm off the coast of Cornwall by building an electrical “socket” on the seabed roughly 10 miles out to sea, connected to the UK power grid via an underwater cable. Wave energy devices would be connected to the Wave Hub, allowing device manufacturers to carry out large-scale testing of their machines before going into commercial production.
The three companies are Ocean Prospect Ltd., Ocean Power Technologies, and Fred. Olsen Ltd. The South West RDA expects to build the “socket” next year, with the wave power installations following shortly thereafter.
Ocean Prospect intends to test ten Pelamis devices from Ocean Power Delivery. The Pelamis devices consist of floating cylinders connected by hinged joints. The wave-induced motion of these joints is resisted by hydraulic rams, which pump high-pressure oil through hydraulic motors to drive electrical generators and produce electricity. Ocean Power Technologies plans to install 5 megawatts of wave power using its PowerBuoy wave energy converter, which is moored to the seabed. The buoy’s float moves with the waves, driving a hydraulic pump to produce electricity.
For more information, see the Web site of the RDA.
