Auckland University student wins Fisher scholarship

David Delamore checks out the wind on Mt Hobson. The student is off to study at Cambridge University. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Award-winning engineering student David Delamore wants to help New Zealand exploit its natural advantage as the "Saudi Arabia" of the wind-energy world.

The 22-year-old Auckland University student has won a Woolf Fisher scholarship to study for a doctorate at Cambridge University in Britain.

He is among four Auckland and Canterbury University students to be awarded the scholarships, each worth about $100,000 a year.

They will study at Cambridge or Oxford.

Mr Delamore will graduate as a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering this year and is also studying for a Certificate in Arts, majoring in French.

At Cambridge from next October, he will research the next generation of wind turbines.

The aim is to develop more efficient turbines and to site them offshore, where their appearance and noise cause fewer problems.

He chose this topic partly because he likes to see his research applied.

"I like to feel I'm doing something useful with my research rather than doing research for research's sake," he said yesterday. "I think wind turbines have good application in New Zealand."

Mr Delamore cited a Wellington windfarm project manager who had highlighted the country's great potential for harvesting wind energy.

"He said that in wind energy circles New Zealand is known as the Saudi Arabia of the wind energy world [Saudi Arabia being the country with the largest oil reserves]."

This was because of New Zealand's relatively high wind speeds, which made windfarms cost-effective, unlike those in some places that needed government subsidies.

In Britain, Mr Delamore said, he would research a type of wind turbine intended to overcome the inability of most to cope with high winds.

To protect them, most wind turbines were designed to stop when it was too windy, by automatically adjusting the pitch of their blades.

The prototype turbines in the Cambridge project were designed to fold into a cone - "like a palm tree or dandelion" - in high winds and could keep producing electricity.

The scholarships are awarded by a trust established in 1960 by Fisher & Paykel co-founder Sir Woolf Fisher.

Trust secretary Dr Nigel Evans said the number of scholarships had been increased from three to four this year because the selection panel could not choose between the top four candidates. They were "brilliant students" who had the potential to be leaders in their fields.

The other winners were Abigail Fox from Auckland University and Anna McConnell and Robert Holdaway of Canterbury University.