Ricardo to lead turbine drivetrain project

Ricardo and project partners ScottishPower Renewables and the Universities of Sheffield and Strathclyde were named yesterday as recipients of funding from the government’s Offshore Wind Component Technologies Scheme to develop technologies that will cut the cost of offshore wind energy.

A wind turbine’s drivetrain allows energy captured from the wind to be converted to usable shaft power that can be fed to the electric generator.

According to Ricardo, wind turbines are susceptible to levels of reliability that would be considered unacceptable in other industrial processes, which is compounded by the difficulties of carrying out significant maintenance on turbines once installed.

Replacement part lead times and turbine access can be challenging for land based systems in remote locations, and more so for offshore wind farms where repairs depend on the availability of support vessels and calm sea conditions.

The OWDIn (Offshore Wind Drivetrain Innovation) project was announced by Edward Davey, secretary of state for energy and climate, at the annual RenewableUK conference in Birmingham on November 5, 2013.