A FAST-GROWING engineering firm formed by postgraduate students from the University of Plymouth is to be part of the world's largest commercial wave farm off the Westcountry coast.

Orecon has been named as the fourth company to plug its innovative power generating technology into the Wave Hub, a wave project due to be built next year.

The Bodmin-based firm, which is developing a wave energy "buoy", is to take the place of Australian company Oceanlinx, which pulled out after securing a grant from the government in its home country. It has decided to make its next deployment in Australian waters.

Orecon, formed in 2002 by University of Plymouth postgraduates Nicola Harper and Fraser Johnson, last year raised $24 million from private investors to press ahead with its innovative wave energy design.

The buoy can generate enough power for 1,000 homes.

Orecon will take the fourth berth on Wave Hub, a giant electrical "socket" on the seabed about 10 miles offshore of Hayle.

The £28 million project is being led by the South West Regional Development Agency.

Wave energy device developers can plug in their kit and carry out pre-commercial testing on a scale not seen before.

The three other developers are Ocean Power Technologies, Fred Olsen and WestWave, a consortium of E.On and Ocean Prospect.

David Crisp, chief executive of Orecon, said: "Orecon is at a crucial stage in developing its technology and we hope Wave Hub will be the springboard to full scale commercialisation.

"The UK still leads the way in the development of wave energy technology and we have the best wave resources in Europe.

"Wave Hub will give us the development platform we need to prove our technology to the world."

Construction of Wave Hub is expected to start in May 2010 and be completed by August 2010, with the first wave energy devices expected to be deployed in 2011.

An independent economic impact assessment has calculated Wave Hub could create 1,800 jobs and inject £560 million in the UK economy over 25 years.

Almost 1,000 of these jobs and £332 million could be generated in the South West.

Nick Harrington, head of marine energy at SWRDA, said: "This is just the latest exciting development for Wave Hub.

"We are now tendering for the electrical equipment and sub-sea cable, have agreed a new design that potentially gives us more generating capacity as technology evolves, and have applied for a safety zone around the project.

"Wave Hub is just part of a much bigger ambition to make the South West the cradle of offshore renewables development, not just in the UK, but the world."

Wave Hub has already been hailed as one of the UK's flagship renewable energy projects and is one of just six case studies to feature in the Government's Low Carbon Industrial Strategy.

The report claims more than 30,000 jobs could be created in the South West over the next decade.