The Wave Hub marine energy project will be holding an open day at its offices in Hayle next month – including a sneak preview of a series of paintings by renowned artist Kurt Jackson.

Kurt, who lives in West Cornwall, has been following the Wave Hub project for almost four years and for the last 12 months has documented key stages in its construction and installation.

A selection of the 25 works he has produced will be on display on Friday, December 17 from 12 noon until 8pm at the Wave Hub office in John Harvey House on Foundry Square in Hayle.

Wave Hub is a £42 million project that has created the world’s largest test site for devices that generate electricity from the power of the waves. It consists of a giant ‘socket’ on the seabed 10 miles off the coast of Hayle, connected to the national grid on shore by an underwater cable.

Kurt is passionate about capturing the scene before him in person, and that commitment has seen him sketching at all hours on the beach at Hayle and even out at sea in the middle of the night when Wave Hub was installed.

Kurt said: “I was always excited by both the artistic potential of Wave Hub and the renewable energy agenda behind it, and I’m really pleased with the body of work it has inspired. My own house is carbon neutral and I’ve worked as an artist on an offshore windfarm for npower, so it’s a subject close to my heart.”

Wave Hub general manager Guy Lavender said: “Kurt approached us at the beginning of 2007 about following Wave Hub and we were very happy to give him access to the project. That included him spending 16 hours with us on a 33-foot boat 10 miles offshore waiting for Wave Hub to go into the water. It was the first time I’d ever seen anyone paint in the dark, let alone at sea.

“His paintings really are superb so we hope that people will come along to the exhibition during our open day and find out a bit more about Wave Hub and what we are trying to achieve.”

Wave Hub has been developed by the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency) and is a cornerstone of its strategy to develop a world class marine energy industry in South West England and the UK. The project has four berths available for groups of wave energy devices and has a capacity of 20MW, equivalent to the electricity needs of more than 7,000 homes.

Wave Hub is funded with £12.5 million from the South West RDA, £20 million from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme and £9.5 million from the UK government.