Falmouth Harbour Commissioners (FHC) and The Crown Estate have signed a lease to create FabTest, a new wave energy ‘nursery’ test site in Falmouth Bay on the south coast of Cornwall.
The site has also been issued with a marine license by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), which allows the mooring of marine energy converter devices.
The announcement, made at the Regen SW Renewable Futures conference in Bath, is the latest step in the creation of a marine energy park in South West England.
The Park aims to pull together commercial and academic organisations and marine energy assets to create a vibrant and dynamic centre of marine energy in the region.
FabTest, which is not grid-connected, will enable wave energy generation device developers to conduct sea trials of their devices in moderate seas, close to port facilities. It is a stepping stone to the deployment of arrays of devices at Wave Hub, the world’s largest grid-connected wave energy demonstration facility installed 10 nautical miles off the north coast of Cornwall last year.
The management of the site will be undertaken by a partnership between FHC and the University of Exeter. The FabTest project has been driven by a steering group which has also included Wave Hub and the marine energy support industry including A&P Group and Mojo Maritime in Cornwall.
Mark Sansom, Chief Executive of Falmouth Harbour Commissioners, said: “FabTest offers a pre-consented area in Falmouth Bay licensed to test up to three devices at a time and we are delighted to have signed this lease with The Crown Estate. We will manage the facility and have already secured a licence from the MMO. This means we can offer developers a streamlined approval process for individual devices in an area with a range of depth and seabed types that does not interfere with marine traffic.”
Rob Hastings, Director of the Marine Estate, The Crown Estate said: “We are delighted to have leased this site for the FabTest project and look forward to seeing it being used to test devices. As the emerging wave industry makes the transition from technology R&D to commercial project development, further technology testing is essential and FabTest offers to play an important supporting role. The Crown Estate is also pleased to be working with RegenSW and other stakeholders in the southwest of England to start planning for commercial-scale wave and tidal project development in the future.”
The University of Exeter’s Cornwall-based marine energy experts first proposed the idea of a nursery test site in Falmouth Bay and will help regulate the facility. Dr Lars Johanning, Senior Lecturer in Renewable Energy at the university, said: “FabTest will provide an opportunity to boost our already world-class research in marine renewable energy, including assessing the impact of the technologies on the marine habitat and the development of improved engineering solutions, prediction and modelling techniques.”
Johnny Gowdy Programme Director, Regen SW, said: “We are working with Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council on the creation of a marine energy park in the South West and FabTest is another essential component in the region’s growing offer to the marine energy industry. We are delighted at today’s announcement, coinciding as it does with our Renewables Futures conference.”
Claire Gibson, general manager at Wave Hub added: “FabTest is exactly what the industry has told us it needs and complements the growing marine energy assets and expertise we have in the South West region. It has been designed as a stepping stone to Wave Hub and will help device developers on the critical path to commercialisation.”
FabTest has also been welcomed by Plymouth University, which is currently building wave and tidal tank testing facilities in Plymouth that will be unique in the UK when they open next year.
Professor Julian Beer, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Regional Enterprise) at Plymouth University said: “When you combine our marine building with FabTest’s nearshore facilities, Wave Hub’s offshore grid-connected site, the marine supply chain and the region’s academic expertise, you have the knowledge and assets to take a marine energy project from prototype model to full scale testing of arrays, all in South West England. That’s what the marine energy park concept is all about.”
FabTest is also expected to play a key role in supporting the growth of marine businesses in Cornwall.
Mike Reynolds, Port Operations Director at A&P Group’s Falmouth operation, which has a growing marine renewables business, said: “FabTest is what our customers need to test and develop their devices and systems before looking at deployments further offshore, so this is very welcome. The potential to construct, deploy and service these devices is a key part of our strategy to grow our business in Cornwall. We expect FabTest to play an important role in realising this growth.”
FabTest offers developers the chance to undertake tests to investigate structural integrity, response behaviour, mooring and umbilical behaviour, subsea components, monitoring systems and deployment procedures in moderate sea conditions before deploying their devices in more energetic offshore conditions.
The Crown Estate lease and MMO consent is for five years and the three berths available will be let by Falmouth Harbour Commissioners on commercial terms.
For industry enquiries about FabTest please email info@fabtest.co.uk
Ends
November 9 2011
Notes to Editors:
About FabTest
FabTest consists of a pre-consented two square kilometre area of sea between two and three kilometres offshore in Falmouth Bay offering a range of depth and seabed types in three berths. It will enable wave energy generation device developers to conduct sea trials of their devices and components in moderate seas with excellent access to nearby port infrastructure. FabTest’s pre-consented status aims to maximise deployment efficiencies and minimise costs to applicants and complements the grid-connected facilities at Wave Hub 10 nautical miles off the north coast of Cornwall.
FabTest has been driven by a steering group made of Falmouth Harbour Commissioners (FHC), University of Exeter and Wave Hub, with input from the marine energy support industry in Cornwall including the A&P Group and Mojo Maritime. The management of the site will be undertaken by a partnership between FHC and the University of Exeter.
For more information please email info@fabtest.co.uk
Falmouth Harbour Commissioners
Falmouth Harbour, including the Carrick Roads, is reputed to be the third deepest natural harbour in the world. Falmouth Harbour Commissioners are a statutory port authority with responsibility for the Inner Harbour at Falmouth (excluding Falmouth Docks), the Penryn River up as far as Boyers Cellars, the southern part of the Carrick Roads and a large part of Falmouth Bay. As well as providing regulation of its Harbour Area the Commissioners provide small craft facilities for residents and visitors.
Falmouth Harbour Commissioners is a statutory port undertaking created by an act of parliament in 1870. It operates as a trust port and has a board of eight commissioners who act as trustees. Falmouth Harbour Commissioners are committed to operating the harbour in an open and accountable manner and welcome feedback from harbour users.
The Crown Estate
The Crown Estate manages a highly diverse property business valued at more than £7 billion.
We pay our surplus revenue (profit) to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation every year: in 2010/11 this was £230.9 million. Over the past ten years The Crown Estate has paid nearly £2 billion to the Treasury.
Our objectives, which are laid down by Parliament under the Crown Estate Act 1961, include enhancing the value of the estate and the revenue it produces.
The responsibilities of The Crown Estate are to maintain and enhance the value of the estate and its income over the long term and to do this having regard to good management. In summary, The Crown Estate is a successful business organisation guided by our core values – commercialism, integrity and stewardship.
The Crown Estate manages a diverse property portfolio which includes office, retail and industrial premises; housing; farmland; forestry and minerals; parkland; and around half the foreshore and almost all the seabed around the UK.
The Crown Estate’s property comprises four estates: Urban, Marine, Rural and Windsor.
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter and University College Falmouth are founding partners in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique collaboration between six universities and colleges to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.
The University of Exeter is a leading UK university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter is ranked 10th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2012 and 11th in the Guardian University Guide 2012. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University’s research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
The University has over 17,000 students at three campuses. The Streatham and St Luke’s campuses are in Exeter and the Cornwall Campus (known locally as Tremough) is near Penryn. In an arrangement that is unique in the UK, the Cornwall Campus is owned and jointly managed as the Tremough Campus with University College Falmouth. At the campus, University of Exeter students can study programmes in Geology, Mining and Minerals Engineering, Renewable Energy, English, History, Biosciences, Geography and Politics.
The University of Exeter is currently developing its campuses in Exeter and Cornwall with almost £350 million worth of new facilities due for completion by 2012.
www.exeter.ac.uk/cornwall
About Wave Hub
Wave Hub consists of a giant ‘socket’ on the seabed connected to the national grid on shore by an underwater cable, into which wave energy devices can be ‘plugged’ and tested on a scale not seen anywhere before. The project has four berths available and a capacity of 20MW. 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.
www.wavehub.co.uk
For further information, contact:
Jason Clark
Deborah Clark Associates
01208 77900
07980-834368
jason.clark@dca-pr.co.uk