Construction is well underway on the site of the £35m wind turbine drive train testing facility at Narec in Blyth, Northumberland. The main test hall will be completed by the end of the year and test rig components will then begin to be assembled onsite.
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is investing £25m in the Narec facility, by providing funding to GE Energy – Power Conversion and MTS Systems Corporation for the design, development and commissioning of the test rig.
On a tour of Narec, David Clarke, CEO at ETI commented: “This is a very challenging engineering project and the construction work being undertaken in Blyth is real cutting edge. Excellent progress is being made on the building that will house this innovative test facility and it is great to see the partnership between Narec and Shepherd Construction developing in such a positive way.”
The 15MW capacity facility will be operational in summer 2013 for the accelerated lifetime testing of wind turbine drive trains.
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Offshore WIND staff, July 18, 2012; Image: narec