The bogie is being developed as part of a two-year programme delivered by a consortium of companies comprising of ELG Carbon Fibre, Magma Structures, the University of Birmingham and the University of Huddersfield with additional support from Alstom.

The new carbon fibre bogie is much lighter than models made with traditional materials which will reduce track wear and infrastructure maintenance costs while also reducing energy consumption and the trains overall environmental footprint. Sensors inside the Bogie will monitor any possible issues which would Improve reliability and operational availability.

There are significant potential benefits from adopting novel materials and construction methods in railway vehicle bogies. The reduction in mass results in energy savings but can also reduce track forces and improve dynamic performance. I hope that the tests on the CaFiBo bogie being carried out here at Huddersfield will help to encourage the railway industry to accept these new techniques. Simon Iwnicki, Director of the Institute of Railway Research at the University of Huddersfield

Over the next few months, the bogie will be tested on the University of Huddersfield’s state-of-the-art test rolling rig named the Huddersfield Adhesion & Rolling contact Laboratory Dynamics rig, or ‘HAROLD’.

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Deepwater has raised more than $290 million in project financing, which was provided by Societe Generale of Paris, France, and KeyBank National Association of Cleveland, Ohio. With these agreements in place, the company has now secured all debt and equity funding needed to construct and operate its 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, already under construction.

Deepwater Wind is the only United States offshore wind company to reach this critical milestone and the Block Island location will be America’s first offshore wind farm.

Gulf Island Fabrication, began work in January at its facilities in Louisiana, on the farm’s five steel jacket floating foundations. Alstom will supply five Haliade 150 6 MW wind turbines for the project and has already completed the fabrication in Denmark of all 15 blades.

Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffery Grybowski said in a statement;

We are on the cusp of bringing offshore wind from theory to reality in the US, we’re poised to launch a new American cleantech industry, and it all starts here with our work on the Block Island Wind Farm.

Specialty Diving Services is expected to begin additional fabrication work on components of the foundation substructures at Quonset, Rhode Island in the coming weeks with steel in the water being planned for this summer, when all five of the foundations are scheduled for installation. The project looks to be in-service by the fourth quarter of 2016.

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This blade requires more than 20,000 hours of work by LM Wind Power’s specialist teams which focus especially on aerodynamics, structural design and production processes. The blade uses advanced composite materials enabling LM Wind Power to design and manufacture relatively lighter glass fiber and polyester blades for the length.

The prototype blades will be produced in the company’s Danish factory in Lunderskov and will be ready for installation at Alstom prototype sites in Europe over the winter 2011/12. Future production depends on the end markets that Alstom wishes to address, most likely France, UK and other North Sea markets.

Roland Sundén, Chief Executive Officer, LM Wind Power Group said;

We are proud to partner with Alstom on this important project. I am sure that Alstom’s turbines flying the world’s longest wind turbine blades from LM Wind Power will set a new standard for cost of energy with an advantage over current offshore turbines. This new blade builds on the innovative features developed for our recent blade launch, the GloBlade which has proved to be tremendously successful, offering an additional annual energy production of 4-5 percent compared to standard blades

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