The grant will support the development of a Marine Renewables Business Park at Hayle, South West England.

The marine energy park is expected to act as a focus for the future development of a cluster of businesses based around marine energy.

South West RDA says the investment made by the Departments for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Energy and Climate Change (DECC), is part of a £19.5m fund that was earmarked for investment in marine energy projects in the region when the South West was designated a Low Carbon Economic Area last July in the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy.

Hayle is close to the Wave Hub project – the offshore wave energy demonstration facility. The Wave Hub project has already received £9.5m in support from the Government. Wave Hub is expected to be completed by this autumn with the first wave energy devices to be deployed in 2011.

Claire Gibson, Director of Sustainable Resources at the South West RDA, says: “With Wave Hub now under construction, the business park will be a significant facility that will nourish the nascent marine renewables industry.”

The UK has also announced £4m in funding for a Marine Building at the University of Plymouth, which will house new wave tank facilities.

In mid-March, the Government published its Marine Energy Action Plan setting out the vision for what marine energy can do for the UK, and the actions needed to make this happen.