SW England testbed facilities for marine renewable energy & offshore engineering

SW England testbed opportunities for marinerenewable energy & offshore engineering

Prof Martin J Attrill

Director, Plymouth University Marine Institute

mattrill@plymouth.ac.uk

@mjattrill

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SW England as a centre for UK’s renewable industry

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Only region with all renewable energy resources close to majorports & infrastructure

Wave

Solar

Tidal

Wind

•The South West is the first region in the UK to be designatedas a marine energy park (Jan 2012)

•a collaborative partnership between local and nationalgovernment, Local Enterprise Partnerships, technologydevelopers, academia and industry.

•a physical and geographic zone with priority focus for marinetechnology development, energy generation projects andindustry growth.

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South West Marine Energy Park (SWMEP)

•COAST laboratory (Plymouth University)

•FaBTest (Exeter University/Falmouth Port)

•Wave Hub (EU/UK/regional governmentinvestment)

•PRIMaRE (Plymouth & Exeter Universities)

South West Marine Energy Park Testbed Opportunities

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•£19m development within PlymouthUniversity’s Marine Building

•Ocean Basin (35x15.5x3m)

–24 independently controlled wave generators &2-directional current

–Suite of s-o-t-a instrumentation

–Most advanced ocean modelling facility in UK

•Coastal Basin (15.5x10x0.5m)

–Waves & currents onto a beach

–Option for use with sediment

•Sediment Wave Flumes

–3 flumes, wave and current, with orwithout sediment

–Largest: 35x0.6x0.8m

Coastal Ocean and Sediment Transport Laboratory (COAST)

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•Video to be shown here

Coastal Ocean and Sediment Transport Laboratory (COAST)

•The Falmouth Bay Test site (FaBTest) is a2.8km2 area dedicated to the testing of marineenergy converters (MECs)

•Prevailing high energy westerly swells but inlee of the Lizard Peninsula – relative shelterfor device/ prototype survivability testing

•Testing of wave energy technologies,components, moorings and deploymentprocedures

•Data collection - developers gainunderstanding of any MEC noise impacts andenergy conversion (if relevant) throughoutFaBTest deployment (monthly HSE reporting)

Falmouth Bay Testing Site (FabTest)

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•£42 million scheme creating world’s firstgrid-connected, offshore wave-energytesting facility

•It consists of an electrical hub on the seabed16 kilometres off the north coast of Cornwallin South West England to which wave energydevices can be connected.

•The 12-tonne hub is linked to the UK’s gridnetwork via a 25km, 1300 tonne subseacable operating at 11kV.

•8 km2 licenced area supporting 4 companies’devices & arrays (20 MW capacity)

•Also suitable for tidal devices and floatingwind

The Wave Hub