By Dr Encarni Medina-Lopez, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Marine Energy at the University of Edinburgh

During March 2018, a group of students from the University of Edinburgh went on a series of technical visits, which included Nova Innovation‘s headquarters in Edinburgh.

The students are in their third year of the MEng in Mechanical Engineering and are starting to get involved in how renewable energy companies operate. Everyone at Nova offered a very warm welcome to the students, starting with a presentation of their business and operations by Gary Connor, Engineering Director at Nova Innovation.

Gary gave a comprehensive overview of the company history: the Nova technology development; details about the goals for tidal energy and its differences and similarities with other energy technologies; the remarkable work that it is being done in Scotland in this area; and the European effort to build a strong marine energy sector. The students then visited the Nova manufacturing facility where they were shown the activities currently in progress, including the stripped-down work being done for forensic analysis of one of the Nova turbines within the EnFAIT project. They were able to look inside the nacelle of a full size tidal turbine and were given explanations of the current upgrade work being implemented on the turbines.

The students experienced a real taste of the day-to-day activities taking place in a real facility. The visit was very well received by the students, and we hope to have many more students come and discover the work Nova are doing as part of the EnFAIT project.