UK

South West England’s hopes of becoming a hub for marine energy have received a boost with the announcement of £10.3 million in funding.

The Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) will receive the funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (£5.3 million), the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) (£4.3 million), the University of Plymouth (£200,000) and the University of Exeter (£466,000).

Set up two years ago by the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter with funds from SWRDA, the Institute will use the funds to support the work of its 15 academic staff and 60 researchers. It also plans to invest in new equipment – including wave and tidal measuring devices, wave-making facilities.

The SWRDA also has plans to build a ‘wave hub’ for testing wave energy technology, which it claims will be one of the largest when its starts operations next year.

“PRIMaRE and Wave Hub are central planks in [our] drive towards a low carbon economy in South West England,” says Stephen Peacock of SWRDA.

“We want our region to be one of the best places in the world to build a low carbon business and a global leader in the development of environmental and renewable energy technologies.”

For further information:
www.primare.org/index.php?p=1
www.southwestrda.org.uk/
www.exeter.ac.uk/
www.plymouth.ac.uk/

Related stories:
UK Government to plumb depths of marine power (1-May)
Carbon Trust awards £1 million to cut cost of marine energy (19-Dec 2008)
Scotland hopes to be ‘Saudi Arabia’ of renewable marine energy (4-Dec 2008)

South West Mooring Test Facility buoy, developed by the University of Exeter’s PRIMaRE team, recently deployed near Falmouth.