Marine Renewables

22 March 2012 North of England Branch Evening Meeting

Chairman Ian Probyn, R&D Business Development Manager, Technip Umbilical Systems

Sponsored by PDL Group

Report

Flyer

Overview

The UK government set a target of generating 15% of energy generation from renewable sources by 2020 and so far the offshore wind turbine industry has taken the lead in developing large scale projects. Tidal and wave energy devices are also seen as key contributors to achieving this target and the industry is currently at a critical stage of transition, from small scale experimental projects to large scale deployment.

Presentations

Project Nautilus: Development of a Marine Renewable Test Rig Using Advanced Analysis Tools to Simulate In-field Loading Conditions
Michael Williams, Managing Director, PDL Solutions (Europe) Ltd and Dr Jamie Grimwade, Technology Specialist,  Marine, NAREC

Harnessing marine renewable energy is extremely challenging, and deploying marine renewable devices is costly, time consuming and highly weather dependent. Marine renewable energy developers must be able to prove that their devices work before they are placed in the water and NAREC’s Project Nautilus is a test facility that recreates the loads that the devices will see in service.

A key aspect of the project was to undertake an in-field measurement campaign. PDL Solutions were chosen by NAREC to use this data to develop advanced CFD computer modelling and simulation of the offshore environment, enabling the test facility to simulate the loadings seen in the field. The presentation gave an overview of the development programme.

Tidal Demonstration Project
Graeme Mackie, Managing Director, Oceanflow Energy Ltd

Tidal stream turbines are generally seen as the form of marine renewable energy that is closest to market. A number of different turbine technologies are currently undergoing sea trials and this paper gave an overview of the particular issues, technical, environmental and commercial, faced by Oceanflow in demonstrating its grid connected floating, tethered turbine technology.