APPROVAL GIVEN FOR ONSHORE TEST RIGS North East renewables test centre Narec has been granted planning permission for three new onshore test rigs to be built in Blyth, Northumberland. The county council gave approval for: n
Project Nautilus, a 3MW drive train test rig, will allow Narec to perform certification activities and reliability and performance appraisal of new marine devices. Based around the existing dry docks, there will be no comparable open-access R&D facilities elsewhere in the world. The project is supported by the Government, One North East and the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13.
n A new 100m blade test facility to accelerate the development of new blade designs before they are
taken offshore. It will be the largest of its type in the world and expands on Narec’s existing blade testing capability developed over the past five years. The new facility is jointly funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (£11.5m) and Regional Development Agency One North East (£3.5m).
n Project Fujin will be the world’s largest offshore wind drive train test facility rated at 15MW. It will test whole power systems under realistic conditions. Funding for the build of a major offshore wind turbine component and drive train testing rig has the support of the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and One North East.
THE SCIENCE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE
NETWorks16.indd 16
15/12/10 12:09:50