Fugro experts took part alongside other industry specialists in a summer school for some of the brightest renewable energy engineers in the country.
Hosted by HR Wallingford, the summer school is part of the Industrial Doctorate Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy (IDCORE) programme, which delivers an industry-focused course that aims to expand and sustain a community of high-quality post-doctoral staff for the UK offshore renewable energy industry.
The summer school, which was the first of its kind, delivered a mixture of taught sessions, case studies and expert tutorials in offshore renewable energy. Presentations from guest speakers across the industry and practical sessions in HR Wallingford’s world-leading hydraulics laboratory and navigation simulator added to the practical aspects of the course.
Tony Hodgson , Fugro’s Global Business Development Manager for Renewables , said: “Fugro enjoyed taking part in the summer school programme. The attendees were all very receptive to the presentations we made during their visit and we managed to combine them with a tour of our soils testing laboratory in Wallingford.”
The attendees had the opportunity to work alongside highly skilled and experienced staff in HR Wallingford’s laboratory to explore problems of scour and cable laying in sand beds; and they used HR Wallingford’s state of the art ship simulation centre to practise navigating through a wind farm and docking a service boat against a wind turbine mono-pile.
Professor William Allsop , technical director of the coastal structures group and IDCORE manager at HR Wallingford , said: “This has been a valuable experience for the IDCORE research engineers, enabling them to get first hand experience of the type of renewable energy projects that we are involved in. It has also been a privilege for HR Wallingford staff to work with some of the future leaders of this sector.”
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Press release, September 3, 2012; Image: Fugro Renewable Services