Wave & tidal power |
Government support In March 2021 Bombora welcomed Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, to Pembroke Dock via video link to witness the manufacturing and resource capabilities of Pembrokeshire at its best. “The Welsh Government is committed to the marine energy sector and supporting companies like Bombora. Wales can make a significant contribution to delivering renewable energy and there’s a huge potential to build a thriving industry and create jobs in regions where skilled employment has been in short supply,” he said. “Bombora’s ground-breaking 1.5MW mWave Pembrokeshire Demonstration
Project is placing Pembrokeshire at the forefront of the wave energy industry. At the same time,” Drake continued, “it is building a new and sustainable industry engaging the existing supply chain and creating highly skilled employment opportunities both today and for future generations. Over 50% of the current Pembrokeshire demonstration project is supplied from the local supply chain indicating great potential for the region.” Sam Leighton, Managing Director of Bombora said: “We were delighted to have an opportunity to showcase our progress on this significant renewable wave energy project to the First Minister. Our team of four has quickly grown to 29 demonstrating our strong commitment to the region. Bombora has ambitious growth plans that will see significant additional inward investment to Wales and result in further job creation and export opportunities. “Mark Drakeford was keen to stress that the Welsh Government would continue
to make the case to UK Government to support energy production from the ocean. A clear commercialisation pathway is required for the emerging marine energy industry, similar to support received by the wind and solar industries as they scaled up operations.” Bombora moved its headquarters from Australia to Wales in 2017 to build and
test its technology at full scale in Welsh waters. Its operations are supported by a European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. The wave energy company intends to consolidate and grow its operations
by establishing the Bombora Assembly and Export Centre within Pembroke Dock. This facility will initially support the operations of the £20M, 1.5MW Pembrokeshire demonstration project and then be scaled to provide mWave power modules to Bombora’s global marine energy projects
www.bomborawave.com Diversify
As well as helping contribute towards net zero carbon targets, Bombora claims the mWave has more to offer. “Our technology offers this country, the UK, an opportunity to build upon some fantastic skills that we have allowed to become a little idle and underrated in recent years with the demise of the ship building industry. There are a lot of ports around the UK that are neglected. And Pembrokeshire Dock, where we are based at the moment, is one of the poorest areas of the UK despite the fact they have some fantastic manufacturing capability there. “We’re offering these older traditional industries an opportunity to diversify out of oil and gas,” Rigg said, “and be part of a new up and coming industry that will eventually be exporting these machines to places all over the world.”
In addition, Bombora is also introducing new high-
tech elements into the manufacturing centres and helping to upskill certain elements of the workforce. It is working closely with schools and colleges to ensure that young people understand the benefits of the marine energy industry and have the opportunity to get involved. “We’ve got a great young team that is really
motivated by what they do. It is great to see them grow and get enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead,” Rigg said.
Transferable skills Reflecting upon his own career opportunities, Rigg
References
Information for this article was taken from the Mewburn Ellis podcast with Dave Rigg, COO, Bombora: The power of wave energy 28 June 2021. Forward: On Demand series.
https://www.mewburn.com/ news-insights/podcast-with- dave-rigg-bombora?utm_ campaign=Energy&utm_ content=172493157&utm_ medium=social&utm_ source=linkedin&hss_ channel=lcp-104875
j The modular design of mWave enables Bombora to capitalise upon economies of scale so, according to Rigg, “we can build a device that generates more power simply by adding more cell modules”. Forming contracts within the supply chain enables lots of similar articles to be built in volume and facilitates a lower price per unit, simplifies assembly and construction and makes better use of the available seabed. However, as Rigg explained, maintaining machinery at sea is more difficult and expensive than it would be on land. “We’ve had to develop a strategy for maintaining the device right at the beginning of the process and during the design. Many aspects of the design are built around the maintenance philosophy. The main principle we work on is trying to minimise our time at sea as far as possible because that is the best way of addressing those risks that you can’t really manage – like the weather,” he said. Cell modules that need maintenance are recovered
from sea and then taken back to shore to conduct maintenance in a safe and controlled environment. The process of extracting the cell module or the reverse installation has to be really quick, safe and efficient, Rigg said.
38 | October 2021 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
spoke about the first renewable energy project he worked on with the Royal Engineers in Afghanistan. He remembers they had to come up with a novel way of building consent among the local population in a constructive way. Someone suggested that the local marketplace would benefit from lighting but there were no power cables of power infrastructure there. So they installed solar powered lighting which was well received by locals and meant they could go about their business late into the night. “More generally,” Rigg commented, “I think this industry we’re in is a difficult industry because we’re still having to prove ourselves as we’re not competitively viable yet. We’re still in the development phase. That requires resilience, a lot of teamwork and problem solving - skills that we exercise every day in the military. Some of the techniques, procedures and risk management all transfer directly and so I think these early experiences have worked really well for me since moving across to this exciting world of marine energy.” “The nice thing about what we’re doing is that we’re not following a manual that someone else has written,” Rigg continued, “we are writing that manual. We are solving problems and coming up with new innovative solutions pretty much every day.” Rigg said that it is really satisfying as an engineer to be able to sit down, sketch out lots of ideas and select a concept to work on. “You’re doing it as a team, of course, because there’s lots of different disciplines required to develop the best solution. You can the take that concept, detail it and then you deliver it. Our engineers are involved in that process from the start to the finish. They get to see the fruits of their labour out in the ocean. And for most engineers,” Rigg concluded, “that’s a great experience to be part of.” ●
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