GB£1.5m OWA drives offshore wind cost reduction
A GB£1.5m investment by the Scottish Government into an offshore wind programme will help to reduce the cost of wind energy.
Carbon Trust’s research, development and demonstration (RD&D) programme – the Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA), is working to bring new technologies to market faster, create new industry standards and best practice and pave the way for a subsidy free energy source.
Paul Wheelhouse, the Scottish Government’s Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, said: “The Carbon Trust have done a fantastic job so far in reducing the costs of offshore wind, as well as encouraging collaboration across the public and private sectors to improve the industry as a whole.”
The funding will enable the Carbon Trust to continue exploring offshore wind offers opportunities for Scotland, encourage international collaboration on offshore wind developers’ most pressing problems, specifically address how developers working in Scottish waters can make offshore wind more efficient and share knowledge on innovation and cost reduction between partners.
Set up in 2008, the programme’s initiatives have so far included the development and adoption of 66kV cabling; setting new design standards for monopiles, driving industry acceptance of floating LiDARs (light detection and ranging) technology and developing new access vessels and installation methods.
So far, nearly 150 projects have been delivered, selected to impact the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCoE) by improving performance in offshore wind farm design, construction and operation.
The programme brings together nine of the largest offshore wind developers in Europe; DONG Energy, EnBW, E.ON, Iberdrola, innogy, SSE, Statkraft, Statoil and Vattenfall.
By Rebecca Jeffrey
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