Grouting seals for wind turbines are notoriously difficult to produce, with many failing during installation. With a recent Government announcement that 6,000 new wind turbines will be built around the coast of the UK in the next few years, this is a problem that needs a solution.
That solution comes in the form of the new Crux Products Tongue Seal from Fenner Precision and Crux Products, recent winner of the Queen’s Award for Innovation. The two companies have been working in partnership for over two decades, combining Crux’s offshore engineering expertise with Fenner Precision’s production and materials capabilities. To date Crux Products Tongue Seals have been installed on around 150 wind turbines, with a 100% success record.
Building on an unsurpassed offshore grouting reliability record in the oil & gas sector, the new seals have been recently installed on 100 turbines under the Thanet project, the success of which lead to the Greater Gabbard installation, which will consist of 140 turbines when complete, and the Baltic 1 wind farm of 21 turbines. This latter project was awarded to Fenner Precision and Crux Products after a competitor’s system failed to meet all the system design requirements.
Given these successes, it is clear that the Crux Products Tongue Seal from Fenner Precision and Crux Products has a major role to play in the new UK wind turbine program. In order to build on this success and position itself to supply the large number of seals required by the UK wind energy program, Fenner Precision recently completed the installation of a new seal press line, tripling its seal production capacity.
The Thanet project has generation capacity of 300MW and will produce on average enough electricity to supply 240,000 homes annually. On completion, Greater Gabbard will have capacity of 500MW and is expected to provide carbon-neutral, renewable electricity for more than 415,000 homes.