More companies planning to site R&D and manufacturing centres for offshore wind in UK

A series of very interesting news after the Crown Estate’s Round 3 Offshore Programme announcement are showing how the major wind power international players are keen to be part of the expected substantial growth in UK offshore wind:

Clipper Windpower to open a wind turbine blade manufacturing facility in Blyth working in collaboration with NaREC

Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe (MPSE) opening a research and development centre for offshore wind turbines

Both Siemens and General Electric announcing plans for offshore wind turbines production bases in UK

These are all serious players in the wind energy sector, so extremely good news for offshore wind and the UK.

Investments are however explicitly linked to the Offshore Wind Site Development Competition, the plan announced in the last budget, to distribute £60m in funding to support the upgrade of one (or more) port facilities and production sites specifically designed to support offshore wind development.

Siemens says that “is currently appraising the suitability of potential sites for the production plant, both on the east coast and in the northeast of the UK, with a special focus on the harbour infrastructure” and GE press release includes “(t)his investment will follow the successful outcome of the UK government’s infrastructure competition, aimed at supporting the development of renewable energy in the United Kingdom”.

Now, the details of the competition have not been published yet and it is reasonable to assume that whole selection process will not be completed before Autumn at best. But what about the elections? Are we sure that all this will go on regardless of who will be in government?

Well, I will try to be optimist and assume that all these companies have already done their homework and verified that the plan is supported by all major political parties. I hope. We should be keeping an eye on this.

References:

Clipper Windpower press release

NaREC

The Independent

Siemens press release

GE press release

DECC

New “top of class” Test Facilities for Offshore Wind at NAREC

Shortly after the Crown Estate’s Round 3 Offshore Programme announcement, here is another news that while it it is very unlikely to take as much space in newspapers and news bulletins, it is of no less importance as it shows the commitment of a number of agencies and companies to make Offshore Wind a success in the UK.

The Energy Technology site announces: “ETI unveils plans to design world’s largest open access indoor test facility for offshore wind turbines” be built at the Narec site in Blyth, Northumberland.

So, after last December announcement of a new blade-test facility (with the capability to test blades up to 100m long), here is an indoor test-rig capable of testing a complete wind turbine drive train and nacelle of the size expected to be installed offshore by 2020.

And both to be up and running by the end of 2011.

Pretty challenging, isn’t it?

But then the whole UK plan of Offshore Wind development by 2020 is extremely challenging.

The press release tells us that currently two companies – Converteam and HORIBA Instruments – are working on competing designs and the decision on which one will get the contract will be made by May.

 

Ref:

Energy Technologies Institute News

Narec

New UK Offshore Wind Blade Test Facility Planned | RenewableEnergyWorld.com

Narec, a group that provides R&D, consulting, test and demonstration services for the renewable energy in the UK, announced that it plans to build a new £15 million facility for testing offshore turbine blades of up to 100 meters in length.

The new facility is expected to provide an independent environment to accelerate the development of new blade designs for offshore wind turbines before they are taken into the field for real-world testing.

The facility will be the largest of its type in the world and expands on Narec’s existing blade testing capability developed over the last five years at Blyth, Northumberland, serving the global supply chain and industrial research community.

The  project is jointly funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Energy and Climate Change, which will provide £11.5 million, as well as the Regional Development Agency One North East, which will provide £3.5 million.

“This funding comes in timely response to calls for improved facilities from project developers and manufacturers who urgently need to validate and improve the future reliability of next generation prototype machines, before they are rolled out in their hundreds under Crown Estate Round 3 plans,” said Andrew Mill, CEO of Narec. “Future wind turbine blades are predicted to increase to up to 100m in length and will utilise new materials, for deployment offshore in the UK over the next ten years and beyond, so it is absolutely vital for the industry that there are suitable facilities in the UK. In order to provide insights into the likely performance of such blades under hostile operational load, there will be an increased level of sophistication in the types of tests to be performed.”

via RenewableEnergyWorld.com