Partrac have led the development of tidal resource assessment measurements in the UK and arguably therefore the world given the pioneering development work being undertaken in the UK. Since 2008, they have completed over 35 deployments of ADCPs at tidal energy sites alone and have achieved a data capture rate of 100% thus far.
Partrac have also been at the forefront of completing new types of measurement and were the first company in the world to measure turbulence intensity at a single point in the water column in a tidal race (Sound of Islay, Hammerfest StrØm). They have also developed new measurement techniques and analysis methods to provide detail on the whole water column turbulence profile.
Environmental team have completed a number of benthic environmental surveys. These include ground-truthing of geophysical data and seabed habitat mapping with the objective of delivering quality environmental baseline data to inform wave & tidal energy site selection.
More recently, Partrac has organised and sponsored a pre-conference workshop at the recent RenewableUK Wave & Tidal 2012 Conference and Exhibition in Edinburgh last March. The workshop was entitled, “Unique Challenges of Site Characterisation in Wave & Tidal Projects” and was well attended with over seventy delegates participating on the day.
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Offshore WIND staff, May 17, 2012; Image: partrac