Contractors Meet Challenges of Clemson’s Landmark Test Site for Wind Turbines Gabriella Jacobs South Carolina Construction News Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, and the world will beat a path to your door. Turn a decommis- sioned 82,000-square-foot former U.S. Navy warehouse into a $98 million testing facility for massive offshore wind turbine drivetrains, and the world will beat a path to North Charleston. That’s where Clemson University has devel- oped a state-of-the-art place for ensuring the drivetrains can withstand numerous rigors once they’re at sea. “It’s an amazing facility…There’s nothing remotely sim- ilar,” Millard Choate, CEO of the project’s general contrac- tor, Choate Construction, said. Elsewhere in the U.S. are places that test smaller tur- bine drivetrains. Here, personnel will test equipment that’s up to five times bigger than usual, capable of generating 15 megawatts of power. In fact, it is built to be able to test two sizes of drivetrains. One test rig is for 7.5 megawatt capacity, the other, for 15 megawatts. A simulator of the electrical grid will be used, too, to ensure the power gen- erated by the offshore wind via the turbines can be trans- ferred to 50 or 60 Hz electrical transmission grids and that the turbines can safely recover from grid faults. Officials expect global interest in those functions, as offshore wind energy becomes an increasingly viable al- ternative. They also expect a sizable and long-range re- gional economic boost. The project is being paid for, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy, an American Re- covery and Reinvestment Act grant, and with private-pub- lic partners. 2 – October/November 2013 — The South Carolina Construction News For Choate Construction, whose corporate mission em- phasizes “creating value” and for Millard Choate, person- ally, who supports energy efficiency and green innovations, this project was a perfect fit. “We love this kind of work…We like the more technical, complex jobs,” he said. Start with the condition of the six-acre site, The Navy built on it in 1942 and left it in 1995. The U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency designated the site a brownfield, which it defines as “a property, the expansion, redevelop- ment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the pres- ence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” “We’ve dealt with bad soil and contaminated ground- water, as well as a new design that must withstand hurri- cane and earthquake stresses,” during the construction process, said John Dudas, Choate vice president for the Carolinas. Clemson and its team didn’t stop at reversing the brownfield status, though. It went so far as to ensure the new testing facility will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. That means it conforms to the U.S. Green Building Council’s requirements – as does Choate’s headquarters itself. The machines that will be tested here, and their mas- sive torque, are huge. Choate points out that each blade of a turbine (there are three) is about 300 feet long. Clem- son needed a space that would not “rip itself apart” upon maximum operation, said Choate, who compared the process to that of building a “major, major dam.”