Offshore wave power scheme seeks 12 month extension to complete project
Bruce Sinclair, local democracy reporter
The company behind the development of a wave power project off the Welsh coast is seeking a 12-month extension to enable it to complete its work.
Green energy company Bombora announced it was to build and test a 1.5 megawatt wave energy converter off the Pembrokeshire coast in 2018.
The cigar-shaped mWave equipment is 60 metres long and sits on the seabed where it can access 80 per cent of the wave’s energy without being exposed to its destructive power.
Bonbora Wavepower Europe Ltd had previously been granted permission, in 2019, for works near Angle airfield associated with the development of the wave power generation device at nearby East Pickard Bay.
The onshore control station works included the temporary siting of communications cables and the siting of shipping containers and other associated works.
An extension to the permitted timescale for the site was granted in 2022, and Bombora Wavepower Europe Ltd has now applied to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park planners for a further period of grace.
Funding
A supporting statement says: “Since the previous extension request in August 2022, we have unfortunately been experiencing difficulties finding the balance of funding for the completion of the project.
“We have been continuing with the construction of the mWave wave energy device, but were lacking the funding to complete the marine deployment. The device is undergoing some final tests at Mainstay in Pembroke Dock and then will be transported to Quay 1 at Pembroke Port for final assembly and testing prior to deployment.
“In terms of the consented works undertaken to date, we have installed the conduit for the onshore cable, dressed the access track and laid the surface for the control station. We intend to undertake the remainder of the works (the installation of the control station and the installation of the onshore cable) in Q1/Q2 2024.”
Bonbora has asked for a further one-year extension, to October 2024, in order to be able to complete the project.
The application will be considered by national park planners at a later date.
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More subsidy farming; doing the same thing time & time again & expecting a different outcome is madness. The first patent for a Wave energy converter was in 1799, over 200yrs of development & still no successful design !! Of the 100s of different units deployed in the last 30yrs only 2 survived more than 3yrs ( most went in the first 9mths) & they have been scrapped. Problems with ‘Wave energy converters (WECs)’ are – lack of resilience, maintenance, cost & low intermittent output. You have to build them as massive structures to withstand all the destructive power the… Read more »
That down tick shows someone has no knowledge of ‘Wave energy converters’, so can’t explain any advantages that I may have missed … or maybe they just have a nervous tic (:-))
@saveenergy You are perfectly right about the problems with WECs. “Unfortunately”, I would add, because in theory it is a wonderful resource… Cost (and the resulting cost of energy LCOE) are the worst of the problems. You look at the devices, you believe their power output, you imagine an the most efficient mass production and you don’t know how they can ever work without a feed-in-tariff. Yes, it is true that wind has an incredible success story and was subsidized in the beginning, but wind is much easier to handle. Windmills have been working since ever. Anyway, I hope the… Read more »