U.K. plugs into Wave Hub

In just two years, wave power companies will be able to plug into the grid in the U.K., as part of a Wave Hub project that has just received government approval.

The $56.5 million underwater electrical outlet is expected to go in the water off the coast of Cornwall by the summer of 2009.

"We call it an extension cable, like you can buy at the shops," Nick Harrington, project manager of the Wave Hub, told the Cleantech Group. "But it actually turns out to be a little bit more complicated than that."

Backed by U.K. and EU funds, the project will be owned and operated by the government's South West of England Regional Development Agency.

The agency said the Hub could generate 20 megawatts of electricity, enough power for 7,500 homes.

"We will be getting a lease of the seabed, 8 square kilometers of seabed. We will then be granting sub-leases to these companies, such that each of them will have 2 square kilometers of sea, within which they can anchor their machines," said Harrington.

Sited 10 miles off the north coast of Cornwall, four companies will be dropping their systems in the water to connect to the Wave Hub when it's ready.

Up to 30 wave power systems are expected from Australia's Oceanlinx, the U.K.'s Ocean Power Technologies, Norway's Fred Olsen, and WestWave, a consortium of Germany's E.ON and the U.K.'s Ocean Prospect, using a system from Scotland's Pelamis Wave Power, formerly known as Ocean Power Delivery.

Check out the Pelamis system here >>

"What we were looking for in selecting companies is people that are far enough advanced in their development that they are able, now, to build not just a single device but an array of devices," said Harrington.

The companies will each connect to their own socket of the Wave Hub, with a maximum of 5 megawatts per socket.

"They have to pay us an annual fee, but we're reckoning we're going to run the project at just about breakeven," said Harrington.

The companies could be getting a good deal for their money.

"For each unit of power, the person selling it also gets what we call a renewable obligations certificate," said Harrington. "At the moment the government is looking at actually modifying the system to even provide two of these certificates for each unit of power sold from marine projects, because marine projects are more expensive to install."

While exact figures are still being worked out, Harrington said each company will pay approximately one-third of the Wave Hub's operating costs.

The U.K. already has a wave power test site in Orkney, Scotland, the European Marine Energy Centre (see Scotland jockeying to become a leader in marine power), but the new Wave Hub will have some advantages over its neighbor to the far north.

"Their project has very limited grid capacity. They can really only take single devices at any one time," said Harrington.

"We see ourselves as the next stage on from that. Where companies who want to deploy arrays of devices, anything up to 10 devices at a time, they can then come onto us."

Harrington said the South West of England Regional Development Agency is currently talking with two different companies as potential builders of the project, and should have that process completed by the end of this year.

While the Wave Hub will make it easier for companies to connect to the grid, it will also provide a well defined and monitored site.

"We provide the infrastructure, we insure it, we will deal with all the navigational marking, complying with consent conditions," said Harrington. "We will measure the waves, and we will record their electrical output."

"They can then go away with a logbook, that we have stamped for them," he said.

Harrington said there are other companies that are eager to connect to the Hub, but aren't yet ready. For what are mostly startup companies, saving the time and money of dealing with the various agencies involved in connecting to the grid is likely a major draw.

"We have spent 2 million pounds, and we're still a long way off from starting to build the project," said Harrington.

"It's all the permitting," he said, "negotiations with the grid company, electrical design, all those things have cost us an awful lot of money, and time. For these developers, the time is possibly even more important than the money."

The South West Regional Development Agency initially proposed the Wave Hub project back in November 2003.

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