Press Release
14 Jan 2009 - Unique wind turbine funding given green light
A potential breakthrough in capturing off shore wind energy was one of four projects given the green light thanks to a £20 million grant from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
The vision for Project Novel Offshore Vertical Axis (NOVA) is 1 GW of offshore vertical axis turbines installed by 2020, via a large scale demonstrator installed offshore within six years. The first phase of the project is to assess the feasibility of a unique vertical winged wind turbine – an Aerogenerator turbine - compared to conventional horizontal axis turbines.
Wind Power Limited, the company that developed the unique turbine, has put together a project team involving world leading research and development groups within Cranfield, Sheffield and Strathclyde Universities and private technology solutions provider QinetiQ. The project is managed and led by Guildford offshore energy specialists OTM Consulting. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) is influencing the turbines’ design/placement so that they will have as minimal an adverse environmental impact as possible. Industry market leaders James Ingram Associates are providing offshore wind farm development experience.
Cranfield University will play a central role in the project and is responsible for the design of the offshore support structure and the structural analysis and design of the radical composite rotor. The Cranfield team led by Professor Feargal Brennan, head of Cranfield’s Offshore Engineering and Naval Architecture Group, also includes researchers from the Aircraft Design Group within the School of Engineering and the Composites Centre at the school of Applied Sciences.
Professor Feargal Brennan said: “Offshore vertical axis wind turbines offer the potential for a breakthrough in offshore wind energy availability and reduced life-cycle costs due to their design characteristics of few moving parts, insensitivity to wind direction, and the sitting of the generator at base level potentially allowing large-scale direct drive. Their relatively low centre of gravity and overturning movements make the turbines highly suitable for offshore installation. In addition, they are potentially ‘radar friendly’ compared to existing horizontal axis wind turbine technology.”
Dr David Clarke, the ETI’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The projects being announced today will demonstrate new technologies which can deliver significant cost savings compared to current renewable energy sources.”
Science and Innovation Minister Lord Drayson added: “ETI work is crucial to achieving a green revolution in Britain and we'll be supporting those growth industries and next-generation technologies where we can have a clear global impact. This is also science and engineering at its most exciting. It's precisely the kind of challenge we can use to encourage girls and boys to study the STEM subjects at school and then university.”
The UK’s target for 2050 is an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on 1990 levels covering all sectors of the economy, including shipping and aviation. To help deliver that, 15 per cent of energy should come from renewable sources by 2020.
ENDS
Further information
Cranfield University is a wholly postgraduate institution with a worldwide reputation for excellence and expertise in aerospace, automotive, defence, engineering, environment and water, health, management and manufacturing. The University is made up of the following Schools: Cranfield Health, School of Management, School of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering, and The Defence College of Management and Technology at Shrivenham. For more information visit www.cranfield.ac.uk
The Energy Technologies Institute is a unique partnership between global industries and the UK Government, revealed funding for its first four projects, all with the ultimate aim of providing the public with more affordable, low carbon electricity. While Offshore Wind and Marine technologies are the focus of the first round of projects to be funded, the ETI is also addressing the areas of Transport, Distributed Energy, Carbon Capture and Storage and Energy Networks. The next set of Offshore Wind and Marine projects to be funded by the ETI will be announced soon. The funding for the projects comes from the six current private sector partners –BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell. The ETI’s public funds are received from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) through the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) with additional funding from the Department for Transport.
Project Nova: A UK-based consortium led by Guildford energy specialists OTM Consulting and including representatives from three universities – Cranfield, Strathclyde and Sheffield – the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS) and SME Wind Power. Key sub-contractors include James Ingram Associates and QinetiQ. The project aims to assess the feasibility of a unique wind turbine with a pair of giant vertical wings, which has the benefit of ruggedness, stability and simpler maintenance access, compared to the horizontal axis concept of conventional turbines.
OTM Consulting Ltd is a firm of consultants which helps global energy companies and their suppliers to identify, commercialise and deploy technology. Our key services include technology evaluation, technology strategy and planning, technology commercialisation, and knowledge-sharing network management. OTM’s clients include more than 35 of the major energy companies worldwide such as Shell, BP, DONG, Eon, StatoilHydro and Saudi Aramco, as well as numerous technology providers, government agencies and investment organisations. OTM was established in 1993 and has 20 staff and associates based in Guildford, Aberdeen and Houston.
The University of Strathclyde is internationally renowned for its leading edge teaching, research and knowledge exchange. Based in the heart of Glasgow, it welcomes 15,900 full-time students with an additional 34,000 in continuing professional development and continuing education programmes. It has five faculties: Strathclyde Business School; the Faculty of Education; the Faculty of Engineering; the Faculty of Law, Arts & Social Sciences; and the Faculty of Science. The University is proud of its links with business and is considered one of the most successful universities in the UK for working with industry. More at: www.strath.ac.uk
The University of Sheffield With nearly 24,000 students from 124 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK’s leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University has won four Queen’s Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, 2007). These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world.The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge.
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) is an internationally renowned scientific research and advisory establishment, with facilities at Lowestoft, Weymouth and a number of other locations around the UK. Operating as an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Cefas works alongside government and other agencies, both in the UK and internationally, to play a vital role in securing healthy marine and freshwater environments for everyone’s wellbeing, health and prosperity.
The agency achieves its aims by providing evidence-based scientific advice, managing related data and information, conducting world-class scientific research, and facilitating collaborative action through its wide-ranging international relationships. It applies its expertise and knowledge gained through over 100 years of applied science and research to fisheries management, environment and biodiversity protection, and aquaculture. For more detail about its range of activities visit www.cefas.co.uk.
The other three projects given the green light;
Project Helm Wind: A UK-based consortium led by E.ON Engineering and including representatives from Rolls-Royce, BP Alternative Energy and the University of Strathclyde. The project aims to deliver a concept design and feasibility study for a new offshore-specific wind farm and seeks to overcome the issues facing today’s systems including turbine reliability and accessing equipment for maintenance.
Project Deepwater Turbine: A consortium led by Blue H Technologies with representatives from UK groups including BAE Systems, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS), EDF Energy, Romax and SLP Energy. The project aims to design and determine the feasibility and potential of an
integrated solution for a 5MW floating offshore wind turbine for deepwater deployments between 30 and 300 metres.
Project ReDAPT: A UK-based consortium led by Rolls-Royce and including Tidal Generation Limited, Garrad Hassan, the University of Edinburgh, EDF Energy, E.ON, Plymouth Marine Laboratories and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). The project aims to install and test a 1MW tidal turbine at the EMEC in Orkney, delivering detailed environmental and performance information never before achieved at this scale in real sea conditions.
For further information please contact: Naomie Stanford-Jones, Press Officer, Cranfield University, tel: +44 (0) 1234 754999
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Press release number: PR-01-09-SOE
