“We’re going to go live in May,” she says, referring to the $98m facility that is located on the institute’s campus in North Charleston and accessible by highway, rail and sea. There is 500-tonne dockside lift capacity on site.
Construction is several months behind schedule. Plans now call for the 7.5MW test rig to be completed in January. This will be followed by two months of checks and assessment of the control and monitoring systems.