Global composites supplier Gurit manufactured the blades for Andritz Hydro Hammerfest's HS1000 turbine installed in the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off Scotland, the UK.
The engineering of the 1MW rotor blades presented the structural engineering and composite processing teams with a number of significant challenges, claimed Gurit.
“Our previous experience with designing ocean energy, wind energy and other marine structures was vital in understanding and engineering these complex structures,” said Gurit's senior engineer Luke McEwen.
“We combined our understanding of wind turbine blades, our broad material portfolio, with the new challenges posed by the tidal marine environment, to develop blades which perform hydro dynamically, withstand the predicted loadings and are economical to manufacture.”