Orecon, the South West wave to energy developer, has announced a major new addition to its team bringing the company’s total combined offshore experience to nearly 200 years.
The appointment of Clive Adshead as Director of Marine Operations continues Orecon’s tradition of recruiting world-class marine managers with real hands-on experience of offshore operations.
Orecon’s team boasts expertise gathered together from all over the UK – the calibre of which has not escaped investors who have endorsed the project with funding worth £12 million.
Clive Adshead brings with him more than 33 years of offshore marine engineering and operations experience and is delighted to be returning to work in Cornwall where he began his training with the Royal Navy at Torpoint’s HMS Fisguard back in 1968.
After a naval career spanning some 25 years, Clive moved into the Oil and Gas Industries with a number of senior management roles. His most recent position was as Director of Technical Services for Prosafe – one of the world’s key operators and providers of service and accommodation rigs to the oil industry. It was a position that saw Clive managing multi-million pound refits of the company’s twelve semi-submersible rigs as well as organising their deployments from the Far East to the North Sea.
Now, at the age of 55, Clive is hoping to put his years of experience to good use at Orecon where he will manage the construction and deployment of the first of the 40m wave to energy buoys developed and patented by Fraser Johnson and his engineering team.
The buoys are the result of six years of development work and have been designed around a system of multi-resonant chambers to overcome problems faced by earlier wave power devices in extreme marine conditions. Each buoy will deliver 1.5MWof fully grid compliant electrical energy, that’s enough to power around a thousand homes.
Said Clive: “I’ve been involved in the marine industry nearly all my life. I love the sea and to be working with it again and on such an exciting project is a delight and a privilege.”
“Orecon intends to be among the first companies to harness wave energy effectively and make it commercial and to be involved in that is a challenge that I am greatly looking forward to.”
A father of two grown-up daughters, Clive is a keen scuba-diver and will be joined in Cornwall by his wife Jacqui.
Editor’s Notes:
Orecon has patented technology for a Multi Resonant Chamber device to overcome difficulties experienced by other wave energy projects in the past. Based in the South West, the device is the result of six years development work together with more than 20 years of coastal and offshore experience. Orecon is committed to preserving the environment and its buoys pose no risk to marine life.
A syndicate of international Venture Capitalists including Advent Ventures, Venrock, Wellington Partners and Northzone Ventures have this year invested a total of £12 million in Orecon. The investment will enable Orecon to build and deploy its first full-scale device before moving on to the commercial rollout of its technology.
If you found this story interesting please press the button below to bookmark using one of the many social bookmarking sites. If you would like to keep up to date with news as it happens, why not subscribe to our RSS feed at the top of the right hand column?
