Mainstay Secures Funds for Wave Energy Converter

A designer, builder and maintainer of workboats and renewable marine energy devices has won a contract to build a new energy device for a £5.8 million scheme in South Wales.

Pembroke Dock-based Mainstay Marine Solutions will complete the first major stage of an innovative wave energy converter development project on behalf of client Wave-Tricity.

The contract win continues a successful period for Mainstay, which now employs 80, with 10 percent of the direct workforce consisting of apprentices. The firm’s turnover has increased by a third, from just under £4m to more than £5 million, during the last 12 months.

Wave-Tricity was recently granted a £4 million investment from the European Regional Development Fund via the Welsh Government. It will develop and test a new device called the Ocean Wave Rower, which will convert the natural motion of the waves into clean energy.

The device will be deployed in the Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zones, a wave energy site off the Pembrokeshire coastline, for two years. This trial, which is scheduled for sea trials in February 2017, will help produce a commercially viable, real world wave energy converter.

The contract win announcement comes as Mainstay attends the annual Ocean Energy Europe 2016 Conference & Exhibition in Brussels.

“We have built an enviable reputation for our work on projects in marine energy, said Mainstay’s managing director, Stewart Graves. “We are looking forward to working closely with Wave-Tricity on this pioneering scheme.”

“It’s the third contract win we have won in the second half of 2016, Graves added. “Our dedicated and skilled workforce, which has doubled in the last 2 years, has been instrumental in our growth and success.”

“One of our key goals was to ensure the scheme benefited the local economy and created supply chain opportunities for the region’s businesses,” said Matthew Fairclough-Kay, managing director at Wave-Tricity. “We’re thrilled to be working with Mainstay, which will play an important role in bringing the prospect of clean wave energy a step closer to commercial success.”