Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolf has won the contract to construct a tidal turbine for Scotrenewables, the Orkney-based marine power company. Producing 250kw of energy, the SR250 tidal turbine will weigh around 80 tonnes and will measure 30m in length with twin 8m diameter rotors, giving the system a very competitive power to weight ratio.
Scotrenewables used local fabrication firms to construct a fifth scale prototype model but Harland & Wolff has been chosen to construct the full size SR250. “We have chosen Harland & Wolff to construct the SR250 prototype because of their outstanding pedigree in the field of shipbuilding, offshore oil and gas and, more recently, offshore renewables,” says Mark Hamilton, project leader at Scotrenewables.
“Our input was to assist their engineers to develop the design to make it production friendly. This makes it cheaper and enhances quality,” explains Fred Black, engineering manager of Harland & Wolff. “We have been very active in the renewables market for many years now.”
Work on the SR250 floating tidal energy device has already commenced (see picture) and installation at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney is scheduled for March 2011.
Other Renewable Energy Contracts
The Orkney project is the latest in a series of renewable energy contracts won by Harland and Wolff.
Earlier this year, Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries completed the construction of an offshore wind energy transformer in a joint project. The contract was awarded by German offshore construction company Weserwind on behalf of BARD Engineering.
The offshore transformer platform serves as a hub for wind farms in the North Sea and converts the energy into electrical current and connects this to the European grid system. The transformer effectively generates 400mW, the equivalent of Kilroot power station.
Weserwind commissioned the Belfast yard to assemble and erect the jacket structure (lower sections) of the offshore transformer platform in the yard’s main building dock. The floatable topside (upper section) was built in Latvia and was delivered to the yard by sea. Harland and Wolff provided facilities and support services acting as an assembly and logistics base to Weserwind.
Harland and Wolff also recently completed a contract for the assembly of 60 wind turbines for an offshore site near the south west Scottish coast of the Irish Sea.