Ship to Shore

It's finally here. The long awaited landing of the cable for the Wave Hub project happened this morning at about 5am, on the beach at Hayle rivermouth.  Once the cable has been attached to the electricity substation at Harvey Towans, all that remains is to unreel the cable to about 10 miles offshore, drop the Hub device to the seabed, and it will then be ready for business.

The end of the line
This is important for Cornwall, since the wave power devices that are tested on it will be at the very cutting edge of renewable energy technology, placing us at the forefront of that branch of engineering.  It's also important for surfers, since they will be able to see if the potential 5% reduction in wave size in the swell shadow (due to energy absorbed by the wave devices) is noticeable. This would mean a 20ft wave becomes a 19ft wave, a 10ft wave becomes a 9.5ft wave, a 5ft wave becomes 4.5ft - who will notice?

Presumably, unless there is a veritable Barrier Reef of devices spread across several miles of coast, absolutely no effect will be noticeable at all.  With clean, green, renewable energy soon to be pumped out of the county, this is indeed a bright and forward looking day for Cornwall.

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