THE company tasked with leading the development of floating offshore wind energy in the seas around Cornwall is to be known as Celtic Sea Power.

Formerly called Wave Hub Development Services Ltd, the Cornwall Council-owned company has changed its name to better reflect its future role, which includes attracting large scale floating wind projects to the Celtic Sea and capturing the economic benefits for the Cornish economy.

Celtic Sea Power is about to complete the sale of the Wave Hub offshore renewable energy test facility to Swedish floating windfarm developer and technology provider Hexicon.

The change in name might also help the company shake the negative associations with Wave Hub, which was commissioned for £42m in 2010 to be the world’s largest test facility for new devices capturing wave energy. By 2018, for various reasons, the hub had not been used as much as first hoped, had not generated any electricity to be returned to shore, and had gained the ‘white elephant’ label.

Hexicon will use the Wave Hub site and infrastructure off Cornwall’s north coast for TwinHub, a 30-40MW floating offshore wind project using its innovative twin-turbine platform.

Celtic Sea Power recently hosted a floating offshore wind energy conference in Falmouth to coincide with the G7 Summit of world leaders. More than 300 delegates, most attending online, heard about the potential for floating wind to play a significant part in the fight against climate change and why Cornwall and the South West can lead the way in the UK.

Steve Jermy, chair and interim chief executive of Celtic Sea Power, said: “We need to rapidly accelerate the deployment of floating offshore wind to meet UK and global net zero carbon targets.

“We were delighted to welcome so many industry representatives from across the world to our G7 conference event.

“This is all about scale and speed. What works in the Celtic Sea will work globally, creating huge export potential.”

Celtic Sea Power has estimated that over 70% of the UK’s energy needs could be met by the energy resource in the Celtic Sea. Installing 3GW of power could create over 1,500 primary jobs and the export market for floating wind could be worth £3 billion by 2030.

Stephen Rushworth, Cornwall Council cabinet portfolio holder for the economy, added: “Floating wind off the coast of Cornwall is an opportunity like no other in terms of its potential to generate renewable energy on an enormous scale, whilst having a transformational and positive impact on local economies.?

“Cornwall Council is delighted to have been part of this journey by supporting the sale of the Wave Hub test site.”