AROUND BRITAIN
> WATERWORLD
SITUATED AROUND 17km off the north Cornwall coast is Wave Hub, the world’s fi rst offshore facility for the large-scale testing of technologies that generate electricity from the power of the waves. The £28m grid-connected Wave Hub, which began operation in 2010, leases space to wave energy device developers and exists to support the development of marine renewable energy in the UK and worldwide.
General manager Claire Gibson says: “The South West has the natural resources, infrastructure, skills and facilities to assist the development, deployment and management of wave energy technology, and to address the
technical and academic challenges facing the advancement of the industry. “Wave Hub has been very positively
received by the wave energy industry globally, because it is aimed at helping wave device developers bridge the gap between the full-scale testing and commercialisation of their technology. Its fi rst customer will be Ocean Power Technologies, which is based in the US and the UK and is expected to deploy its PowerBuoy technology next year. “Wave Hub has also seen considerable
interest from device developers around the world, including North America, Australia and mainland Europe, and is in discussions with a number of them.”
Working in support of Wave Hub is the Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) – a partnership between the universities of Plymouth and Exeter and the Combined Universities in Cornwall. A multi-million pound investment has enabled the institute to build a world-beating team of academics with access to more than 60 researchers and up to £6m of new research equipment. PRIMaRE is already working with leading marine energy device developers and has established a worldwide reputation.
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wavehub.co.uk primare.org
> CROSSING THE POND ‘‘
Mojo routinely does business overseas and expanding this is an important target for us. In fact, our two largest ongoing projects are outside the UK
FALMOUTH-BASED Mojo Maritime is a leading provider of project management and engineering consultancy services to the marine renewable energy sector. Through its multi-disciplined team of chartered engineers, naval architects and master mariners, Mojo provides support and management of marine operations, as well as engineering, analysis and design of energy device installations. The company has been involved in a number of high-profi le marine energy projects with a client list of major industry players, both in the UK and overseas. Marine project engineer Richard Argall says: “Mojo routinely does business overseas and expanding this is an important target for us. In fact, our two largest ongoing projects are outside the UK – one contracted with a company in France and one in Germany. “In the past, we have done work
throughout Europe and North America, and we believe that the international
market will continue to be a growth area – particularly the US and Canada. “We do all we can to promote our business on the other side of the Atlantic, attending several conferences and taking part in major trade missions. Most recently, we went to the EnergyOcean conference in Maine, where some of our costs were match funded by UK Trade & Investment.” So how is Mojo helping to infl uence the South West’s status as a global marine energy hub? “Mojo is working hard alongside other local supply-chain marine experts to raise awareness of the opportunities in the South West,” states Argall. “We recently established a local collective named MORE (Marine Offshore Renewable Experts) to promote our local supply chain. This is in parallel with another private sector-led initiative called FabTest – a consented site in Falmouth Bay for the testing and commissioning of wave and fl oating wind devices.”
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mojomaritime.com
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www.ukti.gov.uk
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