NaREC Marine Testing Facility (Nautilus)

在诺森伯兰郡blyth的新能源和可再生能源中心（NaREC）的拟议投资将允许在海上部署之前以显着降低的成本对陆上海洋可再生能源的关键部件进行陆上测试和验证。NaREC海上测试设施将建立并利用该中心现有的基础设施，为船舶驱动系统和其他关键波浪和潮汐能设备组件提供测试基础设施。这将为船舶开发人员提供一个关键设施，在进行昂贵且高风险的海上测试和演示之前，可以在陆地上测试和验证设计/组件，从而提高其效率和可靠性。就建造大型设备和部署的成本而言，在实际海洋条件下进行测试必然是昂贵的，因此，在测试过程中，组件故障、重新设计或调整的成本非常高。这被该行业的潜在投资者和将成为这些技术最终客户的公用事业公司视为相当大的风险。这给该行业造成了严重的融资困难，并延缓了其发展。但是这个提议将允许在早期阶段在陆地上进行投资，以增加可靠性和之后在水中进行原型测试成功的可能性。这将降低与用于将波浪或潮汐能转换成电能的波浪能转换器或潮汐涡轮机内的机械和电子系统相关的成本和风险即，波浪能转换器或潮汐涡轮机内的机械和电子系统，用于将波浪或潮汐能转换为电能。ERDF项目启动和规划表格A v.032009年4月3-。-在随后的“托儿所”阶段部署，然后在全尺寸原型阶段部署。因此，这项建议将导致该部门的加速发展。1000万英镑的投资将用于一个3兆瓦的测试系统，该系统将允许对潮汐能涡轮机组件和波浪能装置的能量转换单元（液压或线性发电机）进行可靠性和“破坏测试”。该项目的主要目标是在2011年3月之前实现3个具体目标。海上试验台研制海洋测量系统的研制海洋模拟建模软件的发展这项投资每年可进行三至八个主要测试项目，每个项目为期一至六个月（平均约三个月）。在每个项目中，将以受控的方式完成一些测试，使设计人员和操作人员能够确定在机器设计和效率方面可以改进的地方。这将减少海洋条件下大规模测试的失败程度，并避免在现场进行昂贵且危险的计划外干预。该测试设施将作为半商业设施运行，预计很大一部分用户将由公共部门项目研发资金（例如欧盟框架计划、碳信托、技术战略委员会、能源技术研究所、研究委员会）和私人投资共同资助。DECC预计，一旦投入使用，该设施将有很高的需求。在世界其他地方没有类似的测试设施，英国已经成为海洋能源设备开发和测试的重点。该设施将允许开发人员在从中型原型到全尺寸商用设备的整个开发过程中测试和提高设备的可靠性-与座椅测试相比，成本和风险显着降低。该设施还将用于测试旨在降低成本的商业规模设备的工程变更。这将确保一个持续的客户基础，在中期和长期

The proposed investment at the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) inBlyth, Northumberland will allow the onshore testing and proving of criticalcomponents for marine renewables onshore at significantly lower cost, prior todeployment at sea. The NaREC marine testing facility will build on and utilise existinginfrastructure at the centre to provide testing infrastructure for marine drive systems2and other critical wave and tidal energy device components. This would provide akey facility for marine developers to test and prove designs/components onshore -improving their efficiency and reliability - before committing to costly and high risktesting and demonstration at sea.Testing in real marine conditions is necessarily expensive in terms of the costs ofbuilding large scale devices and deployment - and the cost of component failure,redesign or adjustment during testing are therefore very large. This is seen as aconsiderable risk by potential investors in the sector and by the utilities who will bethe ultimate customers for these technologies. This has created significant fundingdifficulties for the sector and delayed its development. But this proposal will allowinvestment at the earlier stage, on land, to increase the reliability and likelihood ofsuccess of prototype tests in the water thereafter. This will reduce both costs andrisk_s associated_ with the mechanical and electronic systems within a wave energy converter or tidal turbineused to convert wave or tidal energy into electricity.2 I.e. the mechanical and electronic systems within a wave energy converter or tidal turbineused to convert wave or tidal energy into electricity.ERDF Project Initiation and Planning Form A v.03 April 2009 3- . -deployed at the subsequent "nursery" stage and then at the full-scale prototypestage. The proposal will therefore lead to an acceleration of the development of thesector.The £10 million investment would be for a 3 MW testing system will allow reliabilityand "destruction testing"3 of tidal energy turbine assemblies and the energyconversion units (either hydraulic or linear electric generators) of wave energydevices. The key objectives of the project will be to deliver 3 specific objectives tocreate the facility by March 2011.l. Marine test stand development2. Development of a marine measurement system3. Development of marine simulation modelling softwareThe investment would allow between three and eight major testing projects, eachlasting between one and six months, to be carried out annually (on average aroundthree months duration). In each project a number of tests would be completed in acontrolled manner, allowing designers and operators to determine whereimprovements could be made in machine design and efficiency. This will reduce thelevel of failures in scale testing in marine conditions and avoid the costly andhazardous unplanned interventions in the field needed to correct them. The testfacility would be run as a semi-commercial facility and a significant proportion of theusers would be expected to be part-funded by a mixture of public sector project R&Dfunding (e.g. EU Framework Programmes, Carbon Trust, Technology StrategyBoard, Energy Technologies Institute, Research Councils) alongside privateinvestments.DECC anticipate that there will be a high demand for the facility once commissioned.There are no comparable testing facilities elsewhere in the world and the UK isalready a focus for the development and testing of marine energy devices. Thefacility will allow developers to test and improve the reliability of their devicesthroughout the development process from medium scale prototypes through to fullscalecommercial devices - at significantly lower cost and risk in comparison to seatesting. The facility will also be used for testing engineering changes in commercialscale devices aimed at cost reduction. This will ensure an ongoing customer base inthe medium and longer term