Wave Hub is creating the world’s largest test site for wave energy technology by building a grid-connected socket on the seabed, 16km off the coast of Cornwall, to which wave power devices can be connected and their performance evaluated.
The £42M project has been developed by the SWRDA and is a cornerstone of its strategy to develop a world class marine energy industry in South West England.
The cable, which weighs 1300 tonnes and cost £7M to make, is being spooled directly from the JDR Cable Systems’ factory in Hartlepool onto the cable laying ship MV Nordica at a rate of 400m per hour. The delicate operation is running 24 hours a day and will take around five days to complete.
The Nordica has been chartered by CTC Marine Projects based in Darlington, County Durham, which has been appointed by the SWRDA to lay the cable and install Wave Hub on the seabed.
“This is a major milestone for Wave Hub and has been planned with military precision,” said SWRDA’s Wave Hub general manager, Guy Lavender. “We’ve already connected Wave Hub to the cable so it has been loaded first, followed by the cable itself. After that the Nordica will head for the north Cornwall coast to start the cable laying operation, and weather permitting we expect Wave Hub to be in the water in early August. This will be followed by a rock dumping operation to hold the hub and cable in place, ready for the first wave energy devices to be deployed in 2011.”
During its manufacture Wave Hub’s cable has been coiled horizontally around two giant 30m diameter rotating ‘spools’ or carousels in JDR’s factory, each of which can carry 2200 tonnes. The 33,000 volt cable has been manufactured in one continuous length and is made up of six copper cores, 48 fibre optic cables, two layers of steel wire armouring and an outer polymer sheath. It is 16cm in diameter.
The cable is being spooled onto a 2000 tonne capacity carousel measuring 15m in diameter and 10m high and positioned on the rear deck of the Nordica. The operation is due to be completed before the end of this week.
Wave Hub is being funded with £12.5M from the SWRDA, £20M from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme and £9.5M from the UK government.
An independent economic impact assessment has calculated that Wave Hub could create 1800 jobs and inject £560M in the UK economy over 25 years.
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