ORE Catapult to procure tidal turbine foundations

The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult’s Marine Farm Accelerator (MFA) initiative, in collaboration with Carbon Trust, may soon launch a competitive design competition.

The objectives of the competition are to reduce the cost of the installation processes for seabed mounted tidal turbine foundations and to standardise the mechanical interface between the foundation structure and turbine.

The design competition is seeking to engage a suitably qualified supplier/suppliers/consortia in a phased design process, where the detail of the design is refined at each phase, leading to a preferred solution for the installation process and standardised interface.

It is anticipated that the competition will follow the competitive dialogue process and is likely to include the following stages:

• Pre-Qualification stage will determine general economic and financial standing, experience, as well as technical capacity. A short list of between 3 – 5 suitably qualified candidates will be created to go onto the next stage. Target launch date January 2015.
• Concept stage is anticipated to include concept designs drawings, supporting evidence and associated cost profiles. A short list of between 1 – 3 candidates will be created to go onto the next stage. Target date is March – May 2015.
• Front End Engineering Design stage is anticipated to include detailed design drawings, performance specifications, supporting evidence and associated cost profiles. It is anticipated that this stage may be match-funded via the MFA initiative. Target date is July – September 2015.
• Manufacture and demonstrate final solution at a suitable test site, intended to be a commercial array site. Target date is 2016/17An existing panel of industry experts will participate in the review and scoring of the submissions and thereafter in the dialogue interviews.

Press Release; Image: ORE Catapult