NGENTEC, a technology spin-out from Edinburgh University, has formed a partnership that could see large wind turbine power heads being developed and manufactured in the UK.
It has signed with David Brown, a famous engineering manufacturing brand currently owned by the Scottish company Clyde Blowers.
Under the terms of the agreement, in return for an equity stake, David Brown will provide manufacturing expertise and testing services for the first 1MW (megawatt) prototype of NGenTec’s innovative direct drive wind turbine generator.
The collaboration aims to bring multi-MW products to the offshore market by 2013, in advance of the major offshore wind deployments expected in 2015.
Derek Shepherd, NGenTec’s non-executive chairman, founder and acting chief executive, said: “The industrial partnership with a high quality engineering manufacturer with global reach is a long-term relationship which will considerably strengthen our position in the marketplace.
“We see huge advantages to both parties in ensuring that NGenTec becomes the preferred supplier of direct drive generators to the offshore wind energy market, which in the UK is valued at £70billion over the next 10 years.”
Jim McColl, Clyde Blowers’ chairman, said: “I am pleased to support a Scottish-based engineering company with innovative technology that is targeting the high growth wind sector.
“Industrial partnerships like this can bring home-grown technology to market more quickly and can create the next generation of high value manufacturing companies in the UK and globally.”
It is claimed that NGenTec has developed a step-change in generator technology and, while it is currently working on a 1MW prototype of its C-Gen generator, the firm has already indicated that it expects to prove its technology at 10MW scale and beyond.
The novel direct drive device is said to eliminate magnetic forces between moving and stationary parts of the turbine. It would be up to 50% lighter than other direct drive permanent magnet generators currently available. Moreover, its modular design is expected to be reliable and cost effective.
NGenTec says C-Gen will also be ideal for wave and tidal generation applications.
The agreement follows the announcement in December 2010 that NGenTec had secured £2million funding from Amsterdam-based SET Venture Partners and Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Co-investment Fund, as well as a grant of £800,000 from the UK Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
NGenTec is a spin-out company from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, where the technology was pioneered by founders, Dr Markus Mueller and Dr Alasdair McDonald.
The company, formed in 2009, has a simple aim: to become a leading UK manufacturer of generators and associated engineering services to the renewables sector.
Glasgow-based Clyde Blowers is keen to grow its presence in renewables and claims to have already made significant progress in the wind energy market through David Brown – a company that specialises in developing solutions for mission critical gearing applications such as wind turbines and mills.
David Brown is perhaps best remembered for the sturdy Ferguson agricultural tractors it once manufactured.