News Wind power
Intelligent power
The Hampton Roads Alliance has partnered with Xodus Group and BW Research to conduct a major offshore wind supply chain study for
Amber Solutions has announced the latest innovative design
the Hampton Roads area in Virginia. The project will be used to build
to leverage its technology — a solid-state based Energy Traffic
out the US offshore wind industry in Hampton Roads and identify key
Controller™ with embedded intelligence that enables on-the-fly
opportunities for economic expansion.
switching of building electricity sources. The new capability relies
The partnership will deliver an in-depth offshore wind supply chain assessment and gap analysis for the Hampton Roads metropolitan
on the company’s breakthrough digital control of electricity to provide state-of-the-art electricity management.
area and wider Southern Virginia. The study will be based upon the
“Amber’s solid-state upgrade to 1950’s-era building electrical
requirements of both offshore wind developers and tier one suppliers
is much more than a modernization of outlets and light
as well as gauge the capabilities of local companies to become key
switches,” explained Amber Founder and CEO Thar Casey. “It is
suppliers to the industry.
the fundamental integration of state-of-the-art intelligence
Virginia is home to the first offshore wind project ever in federal
throughout a building’s electrical grid and endpoints. Our new
waters. When fully constructed in 2026, the Coastal Virginia Offshore
Energy Traffic Controller application is a leading example of the
Wind project anchored in the Hampton Roads region will deliver up to
technology’s disruptive nature, enabling the ability to intelligently
8.8 million megawatt hours per year of clean, renewable energy to
and, automatically, alternate sources of power to reduce costs,
the grid — powering up to 660,000 homes.
maximize efficiency and guarantee steady power.”
Ready for blast off A pioneering UK-based steel construction system is on course to dominate the potentially lucrative global nuclear Small Modular Reactor (SMR) market following the successful delivery of a blast chamber contract with a leading US university. The Steel Bricks™ modular construction system developed by Modular Walling Systems Ltd, based in Renfrewshire, Scotland, has been used to construct an Environmental Blast Chamber for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Known as a ‘blast box’, the revolutionary ultra-strong three-metre cubed chamber is now being used for explosives testing as part of a research programme on advanced warhead technologies for the US Department of Defense. The Environmental Blast Chamber was fabricated in the UK by Caunton Engineering, one of the UK’s leading structural steelworks manufacturers, at the company’s manufacturing headquarters in Nottingham before being shipped to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The University of Illinois blast box uses the patented Steel Bricks™ modular construction system which comprises two steel face plates internally connected to create a ‘sandwich’ panel. The steel structure is then manufactured off-site as a single piece, before being filled with 72 tons of self-consolidating concrete in a continuous pour once installed. According to Dr. Stewart Gallocher, founding director of Modular Walling Systems, it is this proprietary process which gives the blast box its unique strength - as well as vastly reducing on-site time and labour costs - making it ideal for SMR construction, a market estimated to be worth US $1.2 trillion globally. Caunton Engineering and Modular Walling Systems are now in detailed discussions with potential customers about a broad range of applications for the Steel Bricks™ system - including the global nuclear industry.
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