Remember the autonomous, friction-based, self-elevating wind turbine servicing concept called Orangutan?
It was developed about 10 years ago by Aberdeen-based Oreada, a private company created by the founders of Boreas Consultants and James Ingram.
By around 2005, they were struggling to move the concept ahead and reluctantly sold the intellectual property to ITI Energy, an intermediary technology institute established by Scottish Enterprise.
ITI Energy went on to award three Scottish companies contracts to test the device under its WTAS (wind turbine access system) programme.
It is designed to reduce the cost of wind turbine maintenance.
Renfrew-based Doosan Babcock Energy would provide materials testing and characterisation services to determine the performance of key components; Prospect Flow Solutions, of Aberdeen, would model and test the structure to determine the maximum load that Orangutan can bear, and Fife-based Burntisland Fabricators would build and host a full-scale wind turbine tower test facility, including full-sized models of the key technology of the tower clamp.
Some £2.2million was spent, then it all went quiet and Scottish Enterprise scrapped the three ITIs it had created, handing the ITI Energy brief on to its energy team instead.
Energy can reveal that SE has been seeking an experienced commercial consul tant or organisation to undertake a computer modelling exercise, to establish the functional specification and estimate the production cost of WTAS, otherwise known as Orangutan.
According to an SE tender notice, while the R&D outcome of the programme was successful, the development of the technology was more complicated than originally envisaged. This meant that the final elements of the work plan were not delivered.
“In particular, the absence of a virtual prototype to prove the concept works has been a significant factor in the subsequent attempts to engage with a commercial partner,” the notice said.
“The rationale for the development of the Orangutan device is as a crane replacement in wind turbine operations & maintenance (O&M) activities.
“Its purpose is to reduce the reliance on cranes for lifting operation for both onshore and offshore wind turbines, and to reduce operational costs as well as logistical complexities relating to the transportation of large cranes.
“In this respect, the concept promises a number of significant advantages over traditional crane-based interventions.”
Parties interested in taking Orangutan forward were supposed to have made their submissions to SE last month.
The main deliverables of this piece of work are to virtually prototype the concept, to determine lifting performance, front-end engineer for a full scale prototype, an accurate cost estimate for the prototype and an investigation of the potential to marinise WTAS to carry out offshore operations and maintenance as well as onshore.
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