Irish company to build world’s largest offshore energy park off Cornwall

27 Mar 2015

Irish offshore energy company Simply Blue Energy has attained a substantial contract to build the world’s largest offshore energy park off the coast of Cornwall in the UK.

The deal, signed with Wave Hub Ltd, will create the country’s first energy park 16km off the coast  and when completed will be considered the most technologically advanced site for the development of an offshore wave energy array.

The hub that will be developed is described by its creators as a ‘socket’ into which wave energy converters can be plugged providing a grid connected infrastructure to bring the electricity generated ashore with up to 48MW of export capacity.

On the completion of Simply Blue Energy’s project, estimated for early 2017, around 200 generators developed by the Swedish company Seabased, and will be located at the Wave Hub facility, providing a 10MW installed generating capacity.

The Irish company was founded in 2011 by Sam Roch-Perks and Hugh Kelly to develop wave energy parks using the Swedish company’s technology in the UK and Ireland with eyes on future expansion.

Speaking of the granting of the contract, Roch-Perks, CEO of Simply Blue Energy, said: “The successful deployment at Smögen justifies the confidence that we have shown in Seabased technology and in wave energy generally. We are looking forward to working closely with the Wave Hub team to create the UK’s first, and the world’s largest, commercial wave farm off the coast of Cornwall.”

Wave image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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