A&P Falmouth informed that the work on Seatricity’s wave energy device will start this week.
At the beginning of this month, Seatricity contracted A&P to build a wave energy device Oceanus 2, which will be deployed at Wave Hub.
Oceanus 2 will be built in the fabrications workshops, assembled on the quayside and deployed from a wharf at A&P’s shipyard in Falmouth. This work will employ some 20 staff for a month.
It will be deployed in spring 2014 and if successful, it will pave the way for the manufacture of a further 60 devices. Seatricity plans to develop a full-scale 10MW grid-connected array over the next two years at Wave Hub, some 10 miles off the coast of Hayle.
Paul Weston, A&P Falmouth’s Renewable Energy Technical Manager , said: “ We are absolutely delighted to win the contract to build Seatricity’s next generation device to be deployed later this year Wave Hub, which is only a short distance from our shipyard in Falmouth. “This is a tremendous boost, not only for A&P Falmouth but also for the local supply chain and demonstrates Cornwall’s growing reputation in the marine renewable energy industry. “We are committed to helping the sector keep costs down and this project is a good example. We sat down with Seatricity at the concept stage and using our knowledge of working with aluminium identified substantial costs savings of 28%.”
In the simplest terms the device, a 10m in diameter floating ring with cross tubes, travels up and down with the waves and operates a pump to pressurise sea water to drive a hydroelectric turbine to produce electricity. The float is tethered to blocks on the seabed and the pumps are linked together to generate substantial amounts of highly pressurised water. This pressurised sea water can also be used for directly producing fresh water by the reverse osmosis desalination process. Both fresh water and electricity can be produced simultaneously.
Peter Mitchell, Managing Director of Seatricity , said: “Our first generation Oceanus 1 device has undergone extensive and successful sea trials in Scotland and we are ready to make the next step with the Oceanus 2. The technology is scalable so once we complete our testing at Wave Hub this year we hope to move quickly to a full array. We’re delighted to be working so closely with the local supply chain and look forward to A&P completing our first device in the coming weeks.”
Press release, February 17, 2014; Image: Seatricity