Clemson University broke ground Thursday on what it says will be the world’s largest facility for testing wind turbine drivetrains, on its Restoration Institute campus at the former Navy base in North Charleston.
The $98 million testing center will be housed in a former Navy warehouse next to existing rail and ship-handling infrastructure, Clemson said. Planning and construction are under way, and it is expected to begin operating in 2012.
It will be able to run full-scale, highly accelerated tests on drivetrains for turbines of 5 to 15 megawatts, with a 30% overload capacity, according to the university. A drivetrain takes the energy from a turbine’s blades and speeds up the rotation to drive the generator, similar to a car’s transmission.
The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the Restoration Institute and its partners a $45 million grant in November 2009, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It was the largest single grant Clemson has ever received, and it was combined with $53 million in matching funds, the university said.
Clemson’s partners include the Charleston Naval Complex Redevelopment Authority, the S.C. Department of Commerce, the state, South Carolina Public Railways, the S.C. State Ports Authority and private partners RENK AG, Tony Bakker and James Meadors, the university said.
More than 500 people attended the ceremony, including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn, North Charleston Mayor R. Keith Summey and Energy Department officials, according to Clemson.
“South Carolina can combine the strengths of its top-ranked research university with its manufacturing sector to catapult the state into a leading role in the nation’s emerging and important wind-power industry,” Clemson President James F. Barker said.
John Kelly, the Restoration Institute’s executive director and Clemson’s vice president of economic development, public service and agriculture, said the facility will bring statewide benefits.
“It’s difficult to overstate what this facility represents for South Carolina,” Kelly said in the university’s announcement.
