Marine Energy in South West England

South West England 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 development of the industry.

The South West peninsula faces the prevailing westerly Atlantic swell with a typical range of 15-25 kw/m (kilowatts per metre of wave face) across the Wave Hub site, increasing to 35-40 kw/h in the area around the Isles of Scilly.

The region has a strong 400kV grid that runs broadly along the north and south coast, with good 33kV nearshore connections in a number of locations, including Hayle where Wave Hub’s subsea cable comes ashore.

South West England is also home to the Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE). The institute is a collaboration between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth delivering world-class research, facilities and technology transfer in marine energy.

From mid-2012 PRIMaRE will offer a new wave tank testing facility that will be unique in the UK. It will allow model testing in both multi-directional waves and variable direction currents, and will be able to model shallow and deep water wave energy conditions.

South West England also has a strong ports infrastructure, with deep water port facilities at Falmouth, Plymouth, Portland and Bristol and a number of smaller ports along the region’s 700-mile coastline. A new marine renewables business park is planned for Hayle in Cornwall.

This is underpinned by strong maritime and advanced engineering sectors offering a skilled workforce that can meet the needs of the developing marine renewables industry.

The region also has its own renewable energy agency, RegenSW, which has developed the Offshore Supply Chain, supporting a network of over 250 companies who are active in the offshore energy sector.