The South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) has appointed CTC Marine Projects as offshore contractor for the Wave Hub marine energy project in the UK.
CTC Marine, which is part of the Trico Marine Group, will handle the load out and installation of Wave Hub’s 25km armoured subsea cable and the deployment of the hub itself on the seabed in 50m of water.
Daryl Lynch, managing director of CTC Marine, said: “We are delighted to be involved in this prestigious project and look forward to bringing CTC’s offshore management and subsea engineering experience to Wave Hub.”
Wave Hub is creating a test site for wave energy technology by building a grid-connected socket on the seabed, 16km off the coast of Cornwall, to which wave power devices can be connected and their performance evaluated. The GBP42m project has been developed by South West RDA.
CTC Marine will be responsible for laying the 1,300 tonne cable and deploying the 12 tonne Wave Hub some 16km offshore.
The operation will include burying the cable on the beach at Hayle where it comes ashore and for the first 6km offshore using a 45-tonne underwater trenching machine that crawls along the seabed, burying the cable as it goes using a high-pressure jet of water.
Further out to sea, where the seabed is more rocky, the cable will be held in place by a combination of rocks and 176 concrete ‘mattresses’ measuring 6mt by 3mt and weighing up to four and half tonnes each.
Jim Price, Wave Hub’s head of procurement at the South West RDA, said: “The award of this contract is a significant milestone for Wave Hub and it means we’re all systems go for deployment this summer. The CTC team has already carried out some onshore surveys at Hayle and will be fully mobilised next month.”