Wave energy testing in Cornwall: Were the waves during winter 2013/14 exceptional?

Abstract

Cornwall in the south west UK is an emerging centre for wave energy test facilities at sea, which experienced a series of high profile winter storms during winter 2013/14. This paper presentsmeasurements of these storms in the context of long term statistics for the wave conditions in the region.The Falmouth Bay Test site (FaBTest) provides an ideal test location for device development, with easy access to a major port, streamlined consenting, and a wave resource combiningtesting conditions andfrequent site access. Wave Hubis situated in a more exposed location off the North Cornwall coastand provides a pre-commercial test bed with 20MW grid connection, again in a pre-consented site. Throughoutthe development of these projects, the University of Exeter has provided significant resource assessment work to establishthe wave and current conditions throughout the region. Results from these studies are reviewed here,providingan overview of the conditions at the two test sites.In particular, measurements from recent storms are put into context of the long term resource at the sites, including the largest waves ever measured at the FaBTest site.