Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE)

Activity

The purpose of the MEECE collaboration is to support innovative companies in West Wales and the Valleys region to develop new products, processes and services for the offshore renewables sector. We carry out a range of collaborative innovation projects to support these technology developments at minimal cost to the company. These include:

• Desk-based research projects to establish feasibility and impact
• Design and construction of prototypes and scale models
• Testing and demonstration of prototypes, products and subassemblies at:
  • The Marine Energy Test Area (META)
  • Facilities at our partner universities including flume tanks and wind tunnels
  • Our world-leading test facilities at the National Renewable Energy Centre, Blyth

Projects

We want to hear from innovative SMEs with ground-breaking technologies and concepts that MEECE can help drive towards commercialisation. We can work across all TRL levels, from basic concepts to pre-production prototypes. Current projects that we are already investigating include:

• Feasibility studies of a floating wave energy converter that has the potential to co-locate with floating wind. This project includes numerical modelling, resource mapping and cost of energy analyses.
• Investigation of a novel heat-exchanger fluid with the potential to improve cooling systems on large wind turbines. As part of this project, MEECE looked to build a bespoke test rig to demonstrate the fluid in a representative context.
• Prototyping and testing a novel vertical axis turbine technology. MEECE will design and build a small prototype and test it in flumes and/or wind tunnels at Cardiff and Swansea Universities, leading to further testing in META.