Atlantis is scrambling a crane vessel to retrieve the 1MW machine’s 18-metre-diameter rotor and nacelle at the European Marine Energy Centre (Emec) in Orkney, Scotland, to carry out a closer inspection of the bespoke blades produced by Singapore’s Tempco Manufacturing for the machine.
It expects to choose a contractor this week to supply new, standard carbon and glass-fibre replacements.
The fault, a “peeling away” of the blade’s composite layers, was first spotted last month by divers during a routine inspection of the turbine’s pre-energisation process and is expected to set back the AK1000’s testing by “at least a couple of months”, says Atlantis chief executive Tim Cornelius.
“The
