NaREC, leading independent R&D platform for new energy technologies, announced yesterday at the All-Energy Conference in Aberdeen, that it is making a proposal to build the world's largest wind energy research and development facilities.

Already supporting wind turbine manufacturers around the world in the testing and development of their next generation wind turbine blades, The company is now proposing to develop a dedicated range of independent, European based facilities for wind R&D, subject to securing the required financial support. The new campus will provide the European wind industry with a fully independent and confidential platform for developing wind turbines above and beyond the current 5MW benchmark.

NaREC's new campus will include the world's largest drive train facility, which will be capable of testing both individual components and complete nacelle systems, up to 10MW. The new laboratory will allow manufacturers to test and develop whole 'power systems' for offshore technology, including complete nacelles, in realistic in-field conditions.

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NaREC's proposals also include the development of the world's largest blade testing facility, which will be capable of testing wind turbine blades up to 100m in length.

NaREC also announced plans to develop full scale on- and off-shore demonstration sites to support both developers of larger wind turbines and the operations and maintenance supply chain. These new sites will be grid connected to enable training and demonstrations for wind farm installation, and full scale R&D.

Manufacturers, engineering teams and projects will be able to incubate within the new campus, giving them full access to NaREC’s facilities and support from NaREC’s own team of wind technology specialists.

Stephen Wilson, Director of Wind Energy at NaREC said: "Installed wind capacity worldwide is growing by 20GW year on year. By 2050 the world could need over 1000GW. The industry now needs to make rapid step changes in turbine technology; increasing capacity and improving reliability, to ensure that supply meets with such a demand.

"Our proposals are designed to prepare the industry for major growth in very large capacity turbines - giving manufacturers the expertise and resource to develop and test new systems, and the supply chain the opportunity to adapt to bigger, more challenging technology."

(CD/JM)