A Dutch testing facility has put out a call to companies wishing to trial tidal energy devices free of charge.
Unlike the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Tidal Testing Centre NL is close to the client base that it serves.
Moreover, the Dutch facility can offer a level of operating conditions control and accessibility that EMEC cannot provide.
Tidal Testing Centre NL’s call is the fifth and final under the EC-funded MaRINET initiative, offering free-of-charge access to what it claims is Europe’s leading test facilities for marine renewable energy R&D.
TTC describes it as a “unique” opportunity for SMEs and researchers alike to use “state-of-the-art infrastructure” at no cost.
A contribution towards transport and accommodation costs for visiting teams will be provided.
Those wishing to apply for access to TTC must be based in the EU or in FP7-associated states, but not in the Netherlands (only trans-national access permitted).
TTC is located in the north of Holland at Den Oever and is capable of testing prototypes at intermediate scale in a sluiceway though small river devices can put through their paces at full scale.
Water flows up to 4.5m/sec are available depending on the tide. The sluice is 16m wide with a depth of 4.2m
Tidal Testing Centre NL holds a separate fund, which will be used next year to design and build a dedicated support structure for turbines. It is keen to consult with technology developers regarding the specifications of such structure.
Firms keen to participate in the fifth MaRINET call should go to www.fp7-marinet.eu for further details and to complete the online application form.
The call closes on October 31. Trials must be carried out next year and successful applications will be announced on December 20.
MaRINET aims to accelerate the development of marine renewable energy (wave, tidal & offshore-wind) by bringing together world-class testing facilities at all scales to offer periods of free access, coordinated research, common standards, industry networking and focused training.
The initiative is funded through the EC’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and runs for four years until 2015.
The network of 29 partners with 42 specialist marine research facilities is spread across 11 EU countries and one international co-operation partner country . . . Brazil. The project is led by the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre at Beaufort UCC (Ireland). Other participants include EMEC and Sintef of Norway.
MaRINET offers periods of free-of-charge access to test facilities across this array of world-class research centres.
In total, over 700 weeks of access is available to an estimated 300 projects and 800 external users across the life of the initiative.
As well as offering funded test facility access, MaRINET partners are also working to implement common standards for testing in order to streamline the development process, conducting research to improve testing capabilities across the network, providing training at various facilities in the network in order to enhance personnel expertise and organising industry networking events in order to facilitate partnerships and knowledge exchange.
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