The work will be carried out by Powermann Ltd after a European-wide tender process to supply and install onshore electrical equipment for the wave energy project. The company specialises in high voltage power station and sub-station projects and is based in Dorset.

The Wave Hub project is being run by the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) and will create “a giant grid-connected electrical socket on the seabed off the coast of Cornwall to enable wave energy devices to be tested on a scale not seen before.”

Earlier this month the Government announced that South West England will become a world centre for wave and tidal energy after the region was designated the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area because of its strength in marine energy.

According to South West RDA, the Government is investing £9.5m in Wave Hub and a further £10m to support other marine energy projects in the South West. The total Wave Hub project is now valued at £42 million, with funding also secured from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence Programme (£20m) and the RDA (£12.5m).

Installation work on Wave Hub is likely to start in summer 2010, with the first wave energy devices expected to be deployed in 2011.