A&P in £1.5M renewables project

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A&P Falmouth has revealed details of a new project it is taking part in to design and develop a vessel to make the installation of tidal energy devices more cost effective.

The renewable energy project has been awarded a grant of £1.5M by the Technology Strategy Board to design, develop and commission a barge equipped with a sophisticated Dynamic Positioning (DP) system and with the capacity to install devices in the most challenging, high energy tidal sites.

A&P will provide a dry dock for the barge in Falmouth and contribute its shipbuilding expertise and knowledge of quayside operations and vessel conversion to the production management and development process.

Paul Weston, renewable energy technical manager at A&P, said: “Installing tidal energy devices in locations with the best natural resources poses significant challenges to the renewables sector. The DP Barge will address these challenges to provide a lower cost, optimised installation vessel.

“The project consortium partners bring together an abundance of marine energy and maritime operations expertise. It’s an exciting and important project and we’re very pleased to be a part of it.”

A&P is match funding 50% of its own costs and management time for the project during the development phase.

The DP Barge project consortium is made up of IT Power (project lead), A&P Falmouth (shipbuilders), Keynvor MorLift Ltd (marine contractor and ship owner) and Reygar Ltd (DP controller developer).