The Mt Wellington Mine site is rapidly developing into one of the leading producers of green energy equipment in the country. The large Crusher House on the site has been leased to Ocean Fabrications who are set to start manufacturing Wave Hub power generating devices.
It's good to see the buildings being refurbished and used for a purpose that will ultimately benefit the planet, as well as the locals :thumbsup:
Check out the latest press release;

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/news/Site-Ocean-s/article-1026676-detail/article.html 

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

---

I'm so glad that the mill wasn't demolished. The headgear was a sad loss but it would have been even worse if the rest of the buildings had gone.

I'd love to see some new pictures of the work going on in the mill at some point. I wonder who has the lovely job of cleaning up all that foul mess the birds kindly donated over the years! 😉

hmmmm..... :confused: .. at the risk of being a wet blanket, this seems to be a highly speculative start-up operation who are, as the article says, coming to an area where the transport links are problematical, and there is no obvious reserve of labour with particular skills, to operate without any obvious funding, in a speculative and developing market.

presumably because it's cheap, and there are grants available.

good luck to anyone who is trying to do something, sez I, and if I read in the papers this time next year that they are expaning I'll be happy to be proved wrong, but I'm a fair way from convinced right now

---

Best of luck to them.

With the forthcoming pressure that will come as oil peaks, the first people doing this stuff will hopefully become the future players.

It would be nice to think these guys got the ball rolling.

Engineering is still a strong industry in cornwall even without the large companies such as compair, so there is a viable labour supply down here.

Also although the roadlinks aren't great, bearing in mind that these things are designed to work in the ocean, the main form of transport is likely to be sea, there are not many places in the country that close to a large port! So I don't see transport being a huge problem

With the wavehub starting this year and the first phase at hayle harbour due to start this year which includes major industrial units we should be trying to attract exactly these types of manufacturers.

Engineering is still a strong industry in cornwall even without the large companies such as compair, so there is a viable labour supply down here.

Also although the roadlinks aren't great, bearing in mind that these things are designed to work in the ocean, the main form of transport is likely to be sea, there are not many places in the country that close to a large port! So I don't see transport being a huge problem

With the wavehub starting this year and the first phase at hayle harbour due to start this year which includes major industrial units we should be trying to attract exactly these types of manufacturers.

I agree with Knocker's comments. The demise of Falmouth as a port was in part due to transport problems although this is a somewhat complex subject outside of this debate. But as he rightly points out not really an issue here. Ironic that it could play an important role again (given it's role in mining and international history). Strangely enough I was down there yesterday so will bore you with a photo. :
🔗Personal-Album-272-Image-35687[linkphoto]Personal-Album-272-Image-35687[/linkphoto][/link]

The port has been expanding again in recent years, perhaps a new era is dawning.

---

Cornwall has a history of start-up businesses in the offshore industry, although they tend to be the sort that are grown to a certain size and then sold out to major players who want to be rid of the competition.

Seacore was developed from nothing in Helston, and that seems to be its current status. Hydrock has been develped in recent years, and was at one poin the largest user of cement in Europe because of its activities at Combe Down; again, where it goes from here remains to be seen.

I'd much rather see something rather than nothing being done, and good luck to anyone who is prepared to try.

---

Renewables and energy saving are the next chance at industry the UK has. We missed the opportunity to be the chiefs of nuclear.

Funnily enough, this sort of thing is nothing new. I read a very interesting book "Small Scale Water Power" (as I reckon waterwheels are very much overlooked indeed) and funnily enough, there were 2 places in Cornwall manufacturing modern waterwheels. I wonder if they are still there....?

Looking at the inconsistencies of wind and wave, water power is pretty good..... you only have to look at the long gone cascades of wheels employed everywhere.

I'm very unsure about the wave power scheme. The actual wave energy we get around here is inconsistent and low. The azores high (even though it's been ill established in the last couple of years) usually sees we get a good 2 months of very slack surf indeed.

Rather than using it here, which will probably not prove viable in terms of output:costs, I hope they manage to build and ship.

Best of luck to them. I do wonder if the above comment is right about local innovation being a historic feature of Cornwall but not truly capitalising on it.

Cut the dole a bit more and there would probably be a lot more of it. :smartass: off we go :thumbsup:

my honest opinion is that 'green' energy sources like wind and wave power should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

none of the figures I have seen make any real sense, apart from places like Lanzarote where you have the Atlantic trade winds year round, and can apparently build as many as you like, there are no indigenous energy sources at all and anything is worth having.

The website for this one effectively says 'we have no market, no product and no backers but if it is ever worth anything, we will be market leaders'

at lest with S Crofty you can see what they are quarrelling about, everyone knows what tin is, and the value of the site isn't in dispute.

there is a surprising amount of EU money around for this kind of 'wish fulfillment technology' and I would prefer to see some proper facts.....

---

Many thanks for all the positive post on this topic! Just winding back a bit, there was a comment about this initiative being undertaken just to attract grants. Sadly, that's completely and utterly untrue! The rest of the press release, which they haven't published because it it too controversial, is as follows: -

It is a pity that such a critically important sector, comprised mainly of small and delicate companies, still has no significant direct public sector support – although such support is available elsewhere. Many people would have expected that very generous Convergence Funding or Government grants would be available to help small private firms such as Ocean and Kensa to generate sustainable green collar jobs with significant capital projects; sadly, it is not. What is worse, banks are taking a very conservative view on lending which means we have to rely entirely on finding forward-thinking private sector investors.”

Cheers

Richard Freeborn
Director of Ocean, Kensa and Mount Wellington Mine Ltd

Just one other point about road links.

Mount Wellington is just 3 miles from the A30, and there are NO bridges between MWM and the A30. Essentially, that means that anything that is "lorryable" is "doable" at MWM. If you can get it on a lorry, then it can splash at Hayle!

After that, its all down to the "deployment" system that is provided by the device designer - and, believe me, they have the same problems of making these things splash "economically" no matter where they go in the world!

However, if you think about it, you can't get into Falmouth Docks without going under a low bridge, which has always been a handicap for the port.

Cheers

Richard

ok, this is all getting really interesting.

googling 'Ocean Fabrications' brings you here...

http://www.oceanfabrication.com/capabilitystatement.html 

I'm puzzled by the discussion of lorry handling. You CAN supply oil and gas fabrications from an inland site, Cameron Valves do it for one thing and so do Hughes Tool, and they are both huge.

there have been some very successful specialist engineering start-ups in Cornwall, Seacore and Hydrock come to mind; but I'd be curious to know what OF's core activity is at present and what its turnover is

---

You mention the low bridges Richard, that is why if we are shipping anything large in we bring it into Truro, last thing landed there was a 300 tonne transfomer last year.

It may come as little suprise to you that Ocean is made up of folks with offshore engineering experience from at least one of the companies that you mention! Ocean are offering to manufacture, assemble and test devices, and device components, in the centre of the County - which is much cheaper, where possible, than trying to do things at the "expensive, nice, crinkly bit around the edge" - the Cornish coast!

Cheers
Richard

that doesn't surprise me at all. I'd rather assumed that the Seacore people would turn up somewhere after selling out to Fugro, it's a common business model in the offshore industry. No-one much else is queuing up to develop offshore engineering down there, so it was a safe bet it would be people who were already there.

Anyway, good luck to them that tries, sez I, because nothing gets done otherwise.

perhaps I'll send you a cv myself...

---

OK, sure!
Many thanks for your "warm words" of support.
My personal view is that this is all about building up the "critical expertise" in the wave industry, in the same way that we did with Hot Rocks, and, before that, high pressure steam and Mr. T!
There is a section for vacancies going up soon at www.oceanfabrication.com but, in the meantime, you can just email to [email protected].

Cheers

Richard

I worked as a roughneck for Kenting Drilling at Rosemanowse, talking of hot rocks....

---

Derrickman, if you fancy reliving your youth, I've just seen this: -

http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/news/Geothermal-power-plant-Eden/article-1038189-detail/article.html 

10% of the UKs power requirement sounds a bit pie in the sky mind, if that was to happen we would be importing a lot of those transformers into Truro!!!!!

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/homepagenews/Eden-launch-cutting-edge-energy-scheme/article-1039053-detail/article.html  -

Well people get upset at wind turbines in Devon, how on earth are they going to cope when a transmission network akin to the midlands starts spreading across Devon!

ha ha, doing that once should be enough for anybody.....

---