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Howco Oilfield Services ("Howco") have manufactured and assembled The Oyster® Test Rig on behalf of Aquamarine Power of Edinburgh.
The completed rig was loaded on to specialist transport at their Irvine manufacturing plant and travelled to the New and Renewable Energy Centre at Blythe docks in Northumberland where it will be installed and commissioned. The Oyster® was designed by Frazer Nash Consultancy.
Howco procured all the raw material from local companies, including Watson-Towers and Kelvin Steels. They also utilised local sub-contractors Waverley Fabrications and Steel Engineering amongst others, to assist in achieving the delivery. The wave motion test rig will be used to simulate sea conditions. Used in conjunction with Aquamarine's software, it will be used to test the performance of Oyster® on dry land before it is launched at sea.
Oyster® is a hydro-electric wave power converter, designed to capture the energy found in nearshore waves and pump high pressure water to an onshore hydro-electric generator. Its relative simplicity makes it extremely reliable and fault-tolerant; and gives it a number of key advantages, all of which make it cost competitive.
Matthias Haag, Aquamarine Power.s Chief Operating Officer said: “We have been very impressed by the quality and efficiency of Howco.s work; and delighted that they have been able to procure sub-contractors and materials locally. this is just the start of building the marine energy industry for Scotland”.
Stephen Hoggan, Group Manufacturing Director, Howco Group said “The structure weighs in excess of 60 Tonnes and represents a milestone achievement for us both from a technical, engineering and morale perspective. We also hope that it places us firmly in contention for future orders from the renewable energy engineering sector".
"Howco Group took over Commercial Components in Irvine 5 years ago with a team of 60 staff. The company has come a long way since then, now employing 115 local workers and growing in terms of project capability and strength of Expertise”.
About Howco Group - Howco Oilfield Services
At Howco Oilfield Services (howcogroup.com) we understand that our customers have complex needs. So we offer a partnership with a depth of resources that enable us to create unique, innovative solutions tailored to our customers. specific business challenges.
Howco Oilfield Services is a uniquely integrated organization, offering the world.s leading companies a total service from component supply to complete project managed solutions and turnkey packages.
About Aquamarine
Aquamarine is the only UK marine energy Company developing both wave and tidal power devices simultaneously and to have secured test berths for both technologies at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
Aquamarine was founded in 2005 by leading marine energy developer, Allan Thomson, and Professor Trevor Whittaker, head of the award-winning wave power research group at Queen.s University Belfast.
Aquamarine.s senior management team includes CEO, Martin McAdam, who founded Airtricity's US operations, recently sold for £0.75 billion, and COO, Matthias Haag, former General Manager at Shell WindEnergy.
In October 2007 Aquamarine joined forces with Scottish and Southern Energy.s subsidiary, Renewable Technology Ventures Ltd (RTVL), securing a £6.3m investment from SSE and a further £1.5m from Sigma Capital Group plc.
Aquamarine has received significant funding and support from Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Technology Strategy Board, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Scottish Government.
Aquamarine recently featured in leading environmental business website (greenbang.com) UK Clean Tech Start-Up Index of 23 top UK new businesses in the clean technology sector.
Aquamarine was recently named "Emerging Technology Promoter of the Year" at the Global Renewable Energy Awards (euromoney.com).
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