LORC Opens New Offshore Wind Test Facilities

Denmark-based Lindø Offshore Renewables Center (LORC) has inaugurated its new test facilities Lindø HALT Test Facility and Lindø Component and Structure Testing (LCST).

According to LORC, the center has secured an environment for full scale testing of wind turbines and drive train components in support of the offshore wind sector.

The LCST, a strategic partnership between FORCE Technology and LORC, includes a mechanical and a climatic test facility for large scale testing of components and structures.

“This was indeed a milestone for LORC, since both facilities we inaugurate today have all ways been part of our plans here at Lindø, and indeed a milestone for the Danish wind hub. We now host a comprehensive set of test facilities – all of which, in each their respect, are leading edge technology and world-class installations,” Torben Lorentzen, CEO of LORC, said.

“But our mission does not end here; we continuously work to address key sector challenges within test and validation, and I foresee several more and equally unique test and validation facilities will be erected here at Lindø in the coming years.” 

Anders Eldrup, Chairman of the Board at LORC, emphasized the development that the center has undergone by stating that back in 2012, when AP Møller – Maersk was closing its shipyard activities on the Lindø plot, a vision to create such a center and wind hub at the site was in the heads of a few.

”When A. P. Moller – Maersk closed its shipbuilding activities in 2012 there were approx. 2000 employees at the shipyard, and today, 5 years later, the vision of creating a wind hub with many jobs on the former yard site is met, as every morning about 3000 people enters the gate of Lindo, and around 100 companies, with leading wind sector players have established themselves here,”  Eldrup said.

LORC is a non-profit commercial foundation established in 2009 by A.P. Møller – Mærsk, Siemens Gamesa, Ørsted, Vattenfall, Vestas Wind Systems, Wave Star and the University of Southern Denmark.

The objective of the center is to promote innovation in the offshore renewable energy sector contributing to the lowering of the Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) and making renewable energy viable offshore, LORC said.