The £42 million Wave Hub project has begun

Billed as the ‘cornerstone of its strategy to develop a world class marine energy industry in South West England’, and funded by £12.5 million from the South West RDA, £20 million from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme and £9.5 million from the government, a two-week drilling operation has started a Hayle, Cornwall.

A 200-metre duct is being drilled through sand dunes at Hayle where Wave Hub’s subsea-cable will come ashore. The cable will be threaded through the duct and connected to a new electricity sub-station that will be built next year, allowing the Wave Hub to be connected to the National Grid.

There’s high hopes that the Wave Hub could take a large piece of the predicted £2 billion-a-year market that will be marine renewables come 2050.

In July, the South West as designated the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area because of its strength in marine energy, attracting a further £10 million of UK government investment for projects that will support the industry. Total investment in the South West’s marine energy programme in the next two years is expected to top £100 million.

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(Image: Graphical representation of the Wave Hub project)