The UK government has launched two new competitions totalling up to £10 million for innovators with novel ideas on reducing the costs of offshore wind power.
The joint venture between the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB) will make up to £7 million available for 5-10 component technologies and demonstration projects, along with a further £3 million for feasibility studies to explore new ideas.
An additional £1.2 million is also being made available under the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships scheme, co funded by TSB and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to share expertise between academia and industry.
The two earlier rounds of the innovation scheme saw David Brown Gear Systems awarded £1.2 million to help develop its 7 MW offshore wind turbine gearbox and Gravitas Offshore receive over £500,000 to develop and demonstrate its concrete gravity foundation for large offshore wind turbines.
“This cash will help innovators across the UK develop a range of new ideas to cut costs and make offshore wind turbines more efficient to run,” commented Energy Minister Greg Barker.
Chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board Iain Gray said this time around the competition will be particularly looking for companies in other sectors with relevant expertise like oil and gas, aerospace or manufacturing that want to move into offshore wind.
Interested parties are invited to attend a briefing event on November 13 before submitting an application by January 16, 2013.
For further information:
www.decc.gov.uk/innovation
www.innovateuk.org
connect.innovateuk.org/web/9214127/overview
Related stories:
Onshore wind power more competitive as costs plummet 38% (2-Nov)
Renewables subsidies costing UK households £4, says REA (24-Oct)
British public want more wind farms, according to poll (23-Oct)
Offshore wind costs to drop 30% by 2020, says UK task force (14-Jun)
Article source: http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/5515/
