Robert Bird Group (RBG), member of the Surbana Jurong Group, has won the NCE100 Companies of the Year award in the category of Excellence in Alternative Energy for its contribution to the MeyGen Tidal Turbine project. RBG designed the Turbine Support Structures for the first stage of the planned 398MW MeyGen tidal turbine farm in Scotland, the world’s first utility scale tidal turbine array.
RBG’s Lorenzo Giorgi (second from left), Laura Legnani (centre) and John Ward (second from right) receiving the award at the ceremony.
The award category celebrates those companies that are doing the most to introduce better energy sources in their projects.
New Civil Engineer (NCE), a monthly UK magazine and organiser of the NCE 100 awards, cited how RBG’s entry on MeyGen Tidal Turbine project “provided a good case study in first principles design, including an explanation of how the project is pushing the boundaries of high turbulent current modelling and structural simulation. Learning from the scheme is being shared with the wider industry: learning from the project is being fed into a new design code which will apply as a new industry standard”.
Its citation further stated, “Carbon use has been a major consideration on the project; care has been taken to ensure all materials are recyclable and the turbines leave no lasting impact on the environment after 25 years. The presentation included examples of the cost-benefit case for stream tidal technology, as well as an explanation of how it represents a good option for providing a solution for meeting the energy baseload using renewables.”
“The clients were clearly happy with Robert Bird Group’s work, with examples provided to back up the claim. Overall, a fantastic project showing clear innovation and leadership in alternative energy.” RBG was also a finalist for NCE’s Construction Innovator Award.
