Scottish engineering consultancy QED Naval has brought the build phase of its Subhub integrated tidal platform – described as ‘tidal array in a day’ – to a conclusion, ahead of trials at a tidal test site in Strangford Lough.
The above stated claims, along with those praising Subhub ’s ease of access for quick and easy maintenance, will soon be up for validation assessment by QED Naval at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) site.
Namely, QED Naval informed that all the appendages for the Subhub platform arrived ready for commissioning and testing, including also the cross-beam to support tidal turbines, and subsea manifold to control the device remotely from small support vessel or barge.
The Subhub is a universal foundation platform, and deployment/recovery method suitable for any type of turbine, according to QED Naval.
It can be modified to capture the benefits of both horizontal axis turbines, and vertical axis turbine, while the platform’s ballasting methods can work equally well with wave turbines as well, according to the Scottish developer.
“The principle benefit of the Subhub is its ability to install a fully integrated, gravity based structure to the seabed including turbines, power take-off (PTO) equipment, ballast. It does this in a single and quick offshore operation using small support vessels which are commonly available making it a very cost-effective solution.
“However, Subhub also provides large performance advantages by steering the turbulent flows into the turbines enabling them to perform as expected in rated flow conditions significantly increasing site capacity factors and energy yield,” QED Naval states.
The current variant of the Subhub has been designed for 70kW Schottel SIT 250 turbines , QED Naval said earlier.