RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
COLLABORATION IS KEY FOR THE OFFSHORE WIND SUPPLY CHAIN
It is widely acknowledged that technology innovation is essential to deliver lower cost and more reliable offshore wind energy. However, one of the biggest barriers for new suppliers into the offshore renewable energy sector is their inability to demonstrate the financial and technical viability of their products.
NAREC
Narec, located in Blyth, Northumberland provides the most comprehensive open-access test and research facilities anywhere in the world for the scale-up of offshore renewable energy technologies. These reliability, design verification and accelerated life testing facilities (electrical and mechanical) have been built to meet demand for the development of bigger turbines and bigger blades.
They provide ‘sticky assets’ and a supportive environment to get new technologies ready for deployment sooner – these are extremely difficult to replicate elsewhere and anchor knowledge in the UK to help focus and cluster the supply chain here.
DE-RISKING PROJECTS By aligning their world-leading independent research, testing and demonstration facilities to de-risk projects Narec can encourage the supply chain in the UK to scale up technologies sooner.
In the manufacturing supply chain, medium sized engineering companies have successfully partnered with non-UK companies developing new turbines for the UK offshore market. Others have made long term investments in plant and are supplying the current round of near- shore offshore wind farms being installed.
Without a turbine assembly plant, the UK has established project delivery expertise in the engineering design, consenting and installation of offshore wind power systems. This is transferring knowledge from the offshore oil and gas, onshore wind, automotive, and electricity generation, transmission and distribution sectors.
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY TEAM Narec has a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and engineers who work alongside project developers, utilities, major manufacturers, universities and international research centres for both commercial projects, and UK and European funded R&D programmes.
TRACK RECORD
Over the past ten years, Narec has demonstrated a track record of success by initiating and delivering European and National collaborative R&D projects which they have implemented to encourage and drive forward innovation in the supply chain. By solving technical challenges and creating new industry benchmarks their projects are extremely important in achieving an upscale in technologies, supporting market entry for new products and services and reducing development and deployment timeframes of offshore renewable energy technologies.
REGIONAL GROWTH FUND WIND INNOVATION PROGRAMME Narec’s success in building partnerships and collaborations across the UK and Europe was further recognised in the second round of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund with the award of the £11 million Offshore Wind Innovation Programme.
After preparing the bid, the organisation will now manage the programme which is bringing together offshore market leaders with world-class technology providers and academia in the UK.
PROJECTS
Six projects have been approved which address key technical challenges associated with the offshore wind supply chain,
EXAMPLES INCLUDE… • Offshore wind turbine foundation fabrication
• Condition monitoring of wind turbine towers and blades
• The development and automated application of protective coatings for the design life of wind turbine structures
EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND (ERDF) Narec has also secured funding from the ERDF to deliver two programmes - The National Wind and Marine Testing Facility Programme and Renewable Energy Technology Accelerator Programme (RETA) to support SMEs in North East England moving into the offshore wind and marine renewable energy supply chains.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER WORKSHOPS AND ADVISORY SERVICES
As part of these projects, companies can engage in a series of technology transfer workshops and advisory services to help them to develop their products and services. This is supported by an online resource to encourage collaboration, improve market intelligence and to help identify future business and funding calls.
Narec
www.narec.com
Narec online resource link
www.renewables-innovation.co.uk
Click to view more info
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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