The start-up of Wave Hub, the world's first large-scale wave farm off the coast of north Cornwall, has been delayed.

Installation of the Wave Hub, the first device of its kind on the shores of the UK to allow commercial exploitation of wave energy, is now planned for spring 2010 - a year later than first anticipated.

The South West RDA, the group behind the ambitious project, blamed the delay on the cost of design and construction.

Nick Harrington, general manager for the Wave Hub project at the South West RDA, said: "We have reached the end of the tender process for the design and construction of Wave Hub and are disappointed that we have had to withhold the award of the contract.

"However, we were not content that the two tenders received following an advert in OJEU offered sufficient value for money.

Nick Harrington, Wave Hub: "We had hoped to have the project in the water late next year but as a result of the disappointing response from the market and the long lead in time to design the equipment, we have now decided to push back its installation to spring 2010."

"We had hoped to have the project in the water late next year but as a result of the disappointing response from the market and the long lead in time to design the equipment, we have now decided to push back its installation to spring 2010."

Located about 10 miles (16km) out to sea off Hayle, Wave Hub - which will collect energy from wave turbines - should be able to generate electricity for around 7,500 homes, directly saving 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over 25 years.

This would support South West England's target for generating 15 per cent of the region's power from renewable sources by 2010.

The government granted planning approval for the £28m project at the end of last year.

Wave Hub will be connected to the National Grid by a 15.5 mile (25 km) cable linked to a new electricity substation at Hayle.

Companies developing wave energy technology will be able to plug into Wave Hub to test their wave energy devices. Four companies have already been chosen to use the scheme.

Wave Hub could create 1,800 jobs and inject £560m in the UK economy over 25 years.

Almost 1,000 of these jobs and £332m would be generated in the region, according to the South West RDA.

The Wave Hub project will cover an area of sea measuring 4km by 2km and each wave device developer will be granted a lease of between five and 10 years in an area of approximately 2 sq km.

The water at the deployment site is approximately 50 metres deep.

Up to 30 wave energy devices are expected to be deployed at Wave Hub and will float on the surface of the sea.