Go-ahead granted for Cornwall Wave Hub

Today is a red letter day for Cornwall because the Government is announcing the go-ahead for a ground breaking development - the construction of a 'Wave Hub' off the coast of Cornwall. This 'Wave Hub' to be built on the seabed some 10 miles from Hayle will effectively be a giant electrical socket connected by undersea cable to a substation on the mainland. There are a number of companies in the throes of developing various types of technology using wave power to generate electricity and the hub will permit them to connect into the mains as it were. At the time of writing four firms have already been selected to have their devices connected to the hub which it is anticipated will be operational in a couple of years.

Cornwall is right at the cutting edge of this technology as the hub will be a world first. It is also the opportunity for the wave generation firms to see just how well their designs perform. And then of course there is the huge potential benefit for the economy of Cornwall.

Of course Cornwall has always been in the forefront of the green energy revolution: we had the first commercial wind farm at Delabole (although I still have doubts about wind energy) and there was also the innovative 'hot rocks' project that I think never properly came to fruition because of lack of money. But wave energy is something else; I can really see massive potential here.