Updated: South West announces £10m boost for regional wave hub

The South West's plan to establish itself as one of the UK's leading clean-tech hubs received a major boost today with the news that more than £10m of development funding has been earmarked for investment in marine energy research.

The European Regional Development Fund, the South West Regional Development Agency, and the universities of Exeter and Plymouth will provide £10.3m to the Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE).

The investment will support the work of 15 academic staff and 60 researchers, while also financing new equipment, including wave and tidal measuring devices, wave-making facilities, subsea electrical equipment, collision avoidance and monitoring equipment and research into the environmental impact and benefits of marine renewable energy.

Much of the research body's work is expected to focus on supporting the South West RDA's plans to build a "wave hub" 10 miles off the Cornish coast, which it claims will be the world's largest wave farm when it begins operation next year.

Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Professor Martin Attrill of the University of Plymouth said that £1m of the new money would be used to fund a 35mx15m wave basin in Plymouth which will be able to test wave energy devices before they go into the water, while some of the money would be used to pay for a bespoke catamaran that will carry out research work on the wave hub.

He added that the university was also planning to appoint two knowledge exchange officers to work with wave energy businesses. "We want to link up more strongly with marine energy firms and get them using our facilities and research expertise," he explained.

Stephen Peacock, enterprise and innovation director at the South West RDA, said the expanded PRIMaRE team would form a central plank in the region's plans to invest £70m in low-carbon activities by 2012. "We want our region to be one of the best places in the world to build a low-carbon business and a global leader in the development of environmental and renewable energy technologies," he added.

However, plans to increase wave-energy capacity in the region could be hampered by the news that legislation designed to streamline planning approval processes for offshore energy projects has been delayed.

According to reports from New Energy Focus, the government has confirmed that its Marine Bill will now not be passed until the autumn, despite initial plans to see the legislation approved this summer.

One of the main goals of the bill is to streamline planning approval processes for wave, tidal and offshore wind projects, by replacing the numerous agencies that currently have to consider marine energy planning applications with one Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

Under the proposed legislation, projects of less than 100MW would only have to get consent from the MMO, while larger projects would have to seek approval from the Infrastructure Planning Commission.