Wave hub
| Wave Hub | |
|---|---|
 Location of the Wave Hub off the coast of Cornwall
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Location | off Hayle, Cornwall |
| Coordinates | 50°18′40″N 5°31′30″W / 50.31111°N 5.52500°WCoordinates: 50°18′40″N 5°31′30″W / 50.31111°N 5.52500°W |
| Status | Under construction |
| Commission date | 2010 |
| Construction cost | £28 million |
| Owner(s) | Department for Business, Innovation and Skills |
| Operator(s) | Wave Hub Limited |
| Wave power facility | |
| Distance from shore | 10 mi (16 km) |
| Power generation | |
| Nameplate capacity | 20 MW |
The Wave Hub is a wave power research project. The project is developed approximately 10 miles (16 km) off Hayle, on the north coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom. The hub was installed on the seabed in September 2010, and is a 'socket' sitting on the seabed for wave energy converters to be plugged into. It will have connections to it from arrays of up to four kinds of wave energy converter. A cable from the hub to main land will take electrical power from the devices to the electric grid. The total capacity of the hub will be 20 MWe. The estimated cost of the project is £28 million.
The project was originally developed by the South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA). Ownership transferred to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on 1 January 2012 in advance of the abolition of SWRDA on 31 March 2012. BIS created an operating company, Wave Hub Limited, to manage the project on its behalf.
A total of four device developers will connect their arrays into the Wave Hub. This will allow the developers to transmit and sell their renewable electricity to the UK's electricity distribution grid. Each developer will be able to locate their devices in one quarter of the 3 by 1 kilometre (1.86 by 0.62 mi) rectangle allocated to the Wave Hub. A sub-sea transformer will be provided with capacity to deliver up to a total of 20 MW of power into the local distribution network.
In 2006 three companies were signed on for initial development. The initial partners were Ocean Power Technologies Limited, Fred Olsen Limited and Ocean Prospect.
The four Wave Hub sites are now confirmed to be assigned to wave generators from UK-based Seatricity, the Australian company Carnegie Wave Energy Limited and Finnish Fortum. The fourth site is to be used for testing offshore floating wind generators.
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Wikipedia