Narec Site Tour and Renewable Energy Lecture

18 September 2013 North of England Evening Meeting

Report

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The North of England Branch of the Society for Underwater Technology visited The National Renewable Energy Centre at Blyth in Northumberland.

Narec operates world‐leading open access and independent translational research, development and testing facilities for offshore wind, wave, tidal and electrical network technologies, and work with industry to increase device reliability, reduce product costs and accelerate the development and deployment of offshore renewable energy technologies in the UK.

The evening was chaired by Ignacio Marti, Chief Technology Officer of Narec. Ignacio also described Narec’s testing facilities and the R&D projects that Narec are delivering across the supply chain and how Narec are helping to reduce the cost, and accelerate the commercialisation, of offshore renewable energy technologies.

Cable Risk Assessment – A Quantitative Approach
Peter Allan, Managing Director, Geomarine

All offshore generating equipment relies on seabed cables to transfer power to shore. All revenue is therefore reliant on the integrity of these cables making them an essential part of the system.

Previously, the concept of a burial protetion index has been used to indicate the security of a cable.
However the approach was qualitative, and did not provide a reliable model for assessing the probability of damage occurring. New developments such as AIS systems for monitoring shipping traffic now allow a quantitative model to be developed. This can then be used to develop a reliable financial model for the cable, with a realistic basis for whole life maintenance costs.

The presentation described the methodology Geomarine have developed for cable risk assessment and provide example case studies of its application.

Floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbines – Current and Future Developments
Chris Golightly, Independent Geotechnical and Engineering Geology Consultant

The July 2013 Deep Water Wind report from EWEA states that offshore floating wind will be competitive in water depths of over 40 m against current fixed structures such as monopiles, jackets, tripods, gravity base structures, multi and single suction caissons. However, innovative new designs will be required in order to take advantage of the huge resources available in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and deeper parts of the North Sea. Early work in France (NENUPHAR) and Japan (SKWID) as well as considerable research in the USA indicates that taut tension anchored floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbines [VAWT] will play a major role in the future. This presentation discussed these alternatives.