Testing facilities progress at Narec

The three structures form part of Narec’s £80m + investment in facilities for the testing of offshore renewable technologies. The new facilities being constructed will enable the accelerated lifetime testing of turbines and blades to develop improved reliability and reduce the financial risks associated with deploying untested prototype technologies offshore.

First completed, the 3MW input capacity Drive Train Test Facility will test tidal turbines in a controlled environment out of the water. The test rig is currently being assembled and will be commissioned later this summer using the Atlantis Resources AR100 turbine.

At 900m² and rising 15m high above the existing dock, the new steel structure has been a complex engineering project with construction over a dry dock requiring a huge in-fill exercise comprising three mass concrete pours and a series of further reinforced pours. To withstand the weight of the steel frame and the rigorous testing procedures that will operate within the building, the structural slabs were heavily reinforced with large grade steel and the 3.2m thick top slab required a precisely engineered solution to an accuracy of 0.3mm.

Tony Quinn, director of major assets and projects at Narec said, “There was no margin for error with this build and I’m extremely pleased that Shepherd Construction has completed the first of the three facilities in good time. Engineering work is continuing inside the facility on the commissioning of the test rig motor, gearbox and innovative force application system (FAS) to get the rig turning ready for the first customer.”

The second building, which will enable the testing of wind turbine blades up to 100m in length, will complete later this summer and will become the largest testing facility of its kind. This will be followed in 2013 by the completion of the world’s largest wind turbine drive train test facility, enabling the testing of turbine nacelles up to 15MW capacity.