Around 50 Teesside University engineering students have had a full-access tour of Siemens Gamesa’s blade factory in Hull this week as part of an innovation challenge project being run in partnership with RWE’s Sofia offshore wind farm.
The students, all part of Teesside University’s Foundation Year Engineering Degree, had a sneak peek at the £186m Hull factory expansion project as well as the production of 81-metre blades destined for installation at two offshore wind farms.
The visit was organised as part of innovation challenge set by the Sofia team and integrated into the student’s coursework.
The students have been tasked with working in small groups to develop new ways to inspect offshore wind turbine blades.
The challenge is being overseen by Gill Lacey, senior lecturer at the School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies.
She said: “Being able to visit the factory has given them a real insight into how blades are made, their scale and complexity, which will be hugely inspiring as they continue to work on their blade inspection concepts.”
The brief for the students is to come up with feasible methods for blade inspection that minimise or remove the need for personnel rope access, working from height and turbine inspection downtime.
An added incentive are cash prizes for the teams that develop the top two concepts.
Sofia project director Matthew Swanwick said: “We hope that through opportunities like this innovation challenge and the blade factory visit, we are able to give the next generation a better understanding of the offshore wind sector and perhaps inspire them in their future career choices.”
Siemens Gamesa Hull factory director Andy Sykes said: “It was a pleasure to host the next generation of renewable energy engineers at our wind turbine blade factory in Hull.
“They represent the talent that will deliver net zero and combat the climate emergency.
“(Siemens Gamesa) has a well-established nurture young engineering and STEM talent, and it’s great to be able also to enthuse the engineers of tomorrow training with our long-term partners, RWE.”
Student Eve Lynas said: “Today’s trip has really opened my eyes to the mechanical and renewable side to engineering, I thoroughly enjoyed it.”