The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and Atlantis Resources have announced that the tidal developer's next generation 1.5 MW tidal turbine, the AR1500, will undergo a six week test programme at the National Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth, UK. The tests aim to de-risk the AR1500's deployment by proving the reliability and validating the performance of its power train system.
ORE Catapult is working with Atlantis Resources on the €1.3m Eurostars project to drive forward the development and deployment of the AR1500 tidal turbine, the series which is to be installed at MeyGen, the UK's first tidal array, in the Pentland Firth off the Scottish coast. The tests are the critical final stage of development that will give Atlantis, MeyGen and their investors the confidence that the turbine is ready to be deployed and to start generating electricity.
The Catapult's 3 MW power train test rig will be used to simulate the dynamic forces the turbine will experience during operation. This will be the second tidal turbine Atlantis has tested at the NREC. In 2012 the company's 1MW turbine, the AR1000, successfully completed four weeks of testing, gathering performance data equivalent to four months of operation. The knowledge gained from this first test has been crucial to accelerating the development of the AR1500.
Preparations for the test are currently underway. ORE Catapult and Atlantis are working together to develop the test plans to simulate, as close as possible, the real life operating conditions of the turbine. ORE Catapult has also commenced the design of the steelwork required to hold the turbine in position during load testing.
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