The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), together with the country’s national ocean test centre Lir NOTF, is again offering free-of-charge access to the research and testing facilities for offshore renewable energy (ORE) developers.
The access programme to the Lir NOTF is designed to enable the testing and progression of ORE technologies through the early development stages in advance of open sea testing.
It is supported by SEAI and is open to any type of ORE technology – including wave, wind, tidal and floating solar – that can be tested at the Lir NOTF.
The test facilities include a multidirectional wave basin, wave/current flume, wave flume and wave basin, and an electrical laboratory facility.
The range of facilities available provides potential users with the capability to test technology relating to offshore wind, tidal, and wave energy, as well as electrical and grid integration, and cross-cutting technologies.
The call for interested applicants is open until 17 June 2022 and it requires detailed information regarding the proposed work, the test plan, the technical requirements and the anticipated outcomes.
Discussions between the applicant and the facility manager are mandatory during the application phase to ensure the facility is suitable for the proposed testing and to fine-tune the application, the guidelines state.
Each application will be evaluated by an independent selection panel that will consider the eligibility of the proposal and the technical feasibility, according to SEAI.
After the evaluation, the successful applicants will be notified and subsequently contacted by the facility managers to begin the process of organising the test campaign, which can last for up to two weeks or equivalent value.
As noted in the call guidelines, all testing must be completed by the end of December 2022.
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